Our World
by IWubYew
Summary: Is death really the end, or is it just the beginning? Two teenage boys find themselves stuck in all too familiar world with nothing but questions and loose ends. But when the force of Chaos rises, and even the mane six are powerless to prevent it, will they fight for the land they dream't of for so long? Or will they be corrupted by the evil that lies ahead?
1. Life in High School

**Our World**

_**Hey guys, I and my friend Ashe decided to write our own little MLP fan fic! This will most likely be rated M for later chapters, but If you don't want to read any of that no worries, we will give you a warning at the beginning of a chapter if it is fairly rough. This story contains a fair amount of mature language as well as a bit of violence. And this is our very first serious story, so if it turns out terrible please don't judge too harshly, some pointers as well as encouragement would be greatly appreciated! Oh and one more thing, this story is written in 1**__**st**__** person point of view and switches off between my friend and I. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy! :D**_

_**-Jake**_

Ashe's Point Of View

"Thanks for throwing me that huge birthday party Pinkie." I laughed as we both sprawled out on the soft grass of the meadow just outside of Ponyville. I never really had the chance tp have much of a party back at home

I didn't really have any friends to invite, so usually I would just sleep and eat cake all day, how exciting. "Oh no problem silly filly! Did you see Jakob?!" she laughed as the breeze touched her soft fur, causing her to shudder slightly

"Yeah! Wait, are you talking about when he danced on the table or passed out on the stairs?"

"Both! Wow, it sure is cold out here." She said through chattering teeth. It was the peak of fall, and it had begun to get a little cold, I looked down at my blue jacket and back over to her. Almost immediately a sense of pity washed over me as I glanced toward the cute shivering pony.

"Here" I said, taking off my jacket and handing it to her, "You can use it, you need it more than I do."

"Oh wow, Ashe! That's Sweet! And I really do appreciate it… but…could we maybe just cuddle instead?" She asked so innocently that my heart exploded.

"Oh...er...I..." I stammered, trying to hide my face as it went bright red, causing Pinkie Pie to let out an adorable giggle. "Of course we can cud-"

"YAY!" She yelled, before I even had a chance to finish the sentence she had already snuggled up next to me and nuzzled my neck, causing me to go red...yet again. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around both of us, causing Pinkie to slowly stop shivering. "You know Ashie...you sure are warm."

She sighed, wrapping her arms around me in a warm embrace as she closed her eyes. "And you sure are cute." I said, causing her to look up at me.

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course I do Pinkie; you're bright, funny, and beautiful. Not to mention random." I chuckled, my voice full of confidence, as our eyes met and time seemed to simply stand still. I'd never met anyone near as amazing as her. Those beautiful eyes, perfect smile, and soft fur made her incomparable from anypony I had ever met. Not to mention her quirky personality. I don't know how long we sat there looking at each other, and to be honest I didn't really care. I was too busy getting lost in her eyes to focus on the time. This is all I had ever wanted. I had her, Jakob, and not a single trouble in sight. What more could I ever possibly ask for?

"Ashie..." she sighed happily, breaking the spell her eyes had casted on me."I think you're amazing...and well. I actually really like you." She said moving her face closer to mine, causing my heart to jump up into my throat. I'd never really even entertained the thought of having something as amazing as her in my life, and now that it was so close to happening, I couldn't believe my eyes

"I-I...I really like you too Pinkie..." I whispered as I moved my face toward hers. We locked eyes again, our lips now only centimeters apart. I could feel her warm softly caressing my skin, causing the hair on my neck to stand up. I didn't care about anything anymore. Just me and her, she closed her eyes and drew her lips even closer to mine, causing me to move closer to as well as I closed my eyes and-

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!"

"You've got to be shitting me." I groaned, sitting up in bed only to angrily throw the alarm clock at the wall, causing what looked somewhat like a small explosion.

Jakob's Point Of View

"I swear to God if he overslept …" I mumbled as I turned the key to kick start the ignition. I loved Ashe to death but sometimes he could just piss me off to the point of no return. That and he was impossible to wake up in the mornings. I let out a loud sigh, slouching back in my seat, dreading the day that lay ahead. School. A bunch of selfish judgmental bastards all gathered into one place just to mess with people like me. All anyone seemed to care about was their social status. No tenderness, no compassion, nothing but self-centered people doing whatever they consider best for themselves, even if that means putting someone down.

"Here we go again." I sighed, pulling out of the driveway in my 97' Corvette. It sure as hell wasn't a Ferrari, but it got the job done. That and I was a pretty damn big Chevy fan. I rolled my window down, giving my lungs a taste of fresh air. I sped up the street and zipped around the turn into the intersection that led to Ashe's house, completely ignoring the red light. Disregarding all other signs that notioned me to slow down. I had been driving long enough to know my limits and the idiocy of the other drivers around me.

I turned into the nearby neighborhood, screeching to a stop in front of Ashe's house. I couldn't help but look at the picture that hung from my rear view mirror. A large smile sprawled across my face as I gazed into her eyes. Other than a couple of close friends, she was the most important thing in my life. When I was with her, nothing else mattered. The bullying, the shitty home life, the nonstop drinking, none of it seemed to mean anything when I was around her. Everything about her screamed perfection. Those eyes, that alluringly curvaceous body, but most of all, the amount of love she would give when nobody else would offer it to me. I honestly have no idea why she would even look at a loser like me. None the less, love someone like me.

"Krystal". I sighed happily, finally tearing my gaze away from the picture, only to lay on the horn. "ASHE, LET'S GET A MOVE ON." I yelled. As I saw him through the screen door sling his bag over his back. A waffle hanging from his mouth, as he turned to me, proceeding to take the waffle from his mouth only to stuff it in his pocket while he leaned against the door to make a rapid dash towards my car.

"Jhkb gmme a scnd!" he shouted, half of the waffle still in his mouth, Deeming him incapable to form a single word. I couldn't help but laugh at the dumbfounded look on his face whenever he reached for my door handle and found it locked.

"Dude I'm not letting you into the car until you finish the waffle, remember what happened last time you convinced me to let you have a little "snack" in my car?" I asked him, shuddering in remembrance of when I was stupid enough to let him and two of my other friends eat cake in the back of my perfectly clean vehicle. I had to clean crumbs out of the cracks in between the leather seats for weeks.

He nodded and chuckled a bit, almost choking on the waffle. I had never seen a kid that could eat as much or as fast as Ashe could. I couldn't help but wonder how he managed to stay so fit considering what a cook his mom was. I loved to crash at his place. Partially because he was my best friend, and partially because his mom could probably beat Paula Dean at cooking any day of the week. To call the woman a "chef" would be an understatement. Her food made my mom's cooking taste like school lunch.

Once Ashe finally gave up trying to finish his waffle out in the cold, he rolled his eyes and stuffed the rest of it in his other pocket.

"Finally, I thought you were gonna let me freeze out there BBQ" Ashe shuddered, sliding into his seat and closing the passenger door. "Hey, play some Chelsea Grin or something dude, I'm pissed off to the max right now"

"Firstly, I already told you. Don't call me "BBQ". Do I look like a shitty brown colored sauce to you?" I asked as I pulled away from his house and began the long drive to school. "Secondly, what happened that made you so mad?"

"Just… A bad dream that's all"

"Wait, like a nightmare or…"

"No Jakob, it was a just a bad dream. No big deal, just one of more than one hundred thousand dreams I'll have in my life time"

"Well I mean do you wanna talk about i-"

"No" he interrupted "It's stupid, you wouldn't understand it anyway" He sighed, leaning back in his seat and letting the warm air blow out of the vents in the car and onto his already freezing skin, warming him. I had known Ashe enough to know when he wanted to talk and when he didn't want to. And usually if he acted like. He didn't want to, he really did.

"Ashe..." I growled, pulling the car off of the road "We aren't leaving this spot until you tell me what's wrong" He didn't usually act like this. One of the reasons we had gotten along so well for such a long time was because we were both pretty different. I was mostly the quiet one who was into rock, medium-long hair, depressed all the time, who really never had much to call his own. Ashe however was much more up-beat than me. He loved to play sports and was even on school track. He was always excited, always perky, and always happy. Although he loved all different types of rock, he wasn't so much of a stereo-type as I was. So usually whenever he was sad or angry about something, it was important. After sitting next to the main road in complete silence for about two minutes, Ashe finally mustered up a dry chuckle and spoke.

"Yeah… You know about those dumb little dreams I've had about living in Equestria?"

"Yes, but honestly man those aren't dumb. I wish I could be there to a certain degree as well… Anyways go on."

"Well. This one was about Pinkie" He smirked, looking solemnly out the window.

"Oh… What happened?"

"I know this might sound really weird but I almost kissed her" Ashe shuddered

"Damn dude that is really weird" I laughed expecting to get the same reaction out of my friend. To my surprise he just sat there quietly, still just looking out the window into the flow of traffic that only seemed to get worse by the second, reminding me that I only had ten minutes to get us to South Mecklenburg High School. To drive from where we were to the school and make it on time would take around twenty minutes, maybe even more. That is… If we were going under the speed limit.

"Hang on" I chuckled, a cocky grin sprawled across my face as I yet again turned the key in the ignition, and sped off in the direction of school, almost causing Ashe to fly out of his seat and into the back of the car.

"Dude slow down!" He shouted, both confused and afraid. "Do you want to get us both killed or something you retard!"

"Shut the hell up already! You wouldn't talk and now because of you, we're gonna be late!" I yelled back, almost slamming into a truck that had just pulled out of a nearby shopping center.

"Look we can be late, just chill out…"

"Whatever" I rolled my eyes, slowing down gradually until we were driving a bit above the speed limit. I loved to speed when Ashe was with me, it was so funny just to watch him freak out and squirm around sometimes. There wasn't much funnier than seeing something like that.

"Thank you…" Ashe sighed, leaning back in his seat and relaxing again. The drive to school seemed to take forever, I didn't usually like to go slow, but for fear of Ashe having a seizure I stayed near the speed limit. Once we finally got to South Meck I parked the car and looked at my watch.

"We're 15 minutes late. Good job dick head" I growled at him as we began the walk to the main office. "My English teacher's going to freak out on me now."

"Calm down, I'm sure she'll understand… besides, how bad can she be?"

"A lot worse than you probably think" I laughed, walking in the office and approaching the principles desk to get my late note. Once we finally grabbed our passes, we headed out the door to the main building and split up, heading to different classes.

Ashe's Point of view

"Alright see you later" I mumbled as I started walking towards my first class of the day… Psychology. Yet another class I was absolutely "Ecstatic" about taking. I had taken psychology one last year and thought that it was a pretty cool class. Everyone seemed very laid back, the teacher was funny, and all we would do was perform experiments and watch movies. This year wasn't so great. Mr. Walker was going to be out today and in replacement of him, there would be a substitute that I had already heard pretty bad things about. As I neared the building, I took out the waffle stuffed in my pocket and decided to go ahead and finish it… One way or another, I had to eat. Yawning loudly, I walked into the classroom that already seemed to be full of students. Some of them were new, some of them not, I didn't really care. As long as I could make it through the day without having to deal with too many jerks, I was sure I'd be fine. Once I finally slumped down in my seat, I heard an all too familiar voice from across the class room.

"Hey! Hamilton!" He yelled from across the classroom, causing me to shudder. Of all the kids that poked fun at me… Of all the kids that would never leave me the hell alone… He was the worst. Derek Palmer. That dick had tortured me since I was only thirteen years old. From the school cafeteria, to the parking lot, it seemed like he was always there. I was starting to feel as though ditching class didn't seem like that bad of an idea but just before I had the chance to walk out of the classroom, the new substitute teacher Mrs. Maslin walked in and shut the door as the late bell rang. There was no way of trying to side step it. Whether I liked it or not, I was going to be stuck in there for an hour and a half. I just prayed that Derek wouldn't try anything too severe when I walked out of the classroom.

"Good morning class… My name is Mrs. Maslin, welcome to Psychology two. Now if you had Mr. Walker last year, I will be blunt and assure you that things will be run much more differently while I'm in charge. There will be no talking, eating, drinking, sleeping, or moving around unless I say so. And if any of you have a problem with that, you can take it up with security on your way out of my classroom… Hey! What's your problem tough guy?" She asked looking straight at me, throwing me completely off guard. I had an A in that class, and most of the time a teacher would look at me as a student that seems like he gives a shit about his grades. But if she wanted to look at me and act like I was lower than her… I wouldn't just sit there and let it happen.

"Umm…. You?" I scoffed in return, the sting of my own words surprising me as they left my mouth. I was never one of the kids that was ok with disrespecting authoritive figures, especially someone as important as a teacher.

"Excuse me?" Mrs. Maslin shouted

"Well I mean, to be honest Mr. Walker was strict, but he was also a nice guy. And trust me, if you want respect, don't try to instill fear into a bunch of juniors. Because trust me… we are not scared of you. I mean seriously, what the hell are you gonna do? Hit us? And risk losing your job? Yeah, sounds like a great idea doesn't it. You wanna earn our respect? You want us to listen? Well maybe you should stop being such a bitch if that's what you want. Because you can forget about all of that with that "Listen or die" attitude of yours. I mean I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, heck, if you would have actually approached me the right way, I may have actually been really nice to you. But now you had to go ahead and call me out in front of everyone in this class for no reason whatsoever in a pathetic attempt to establish your dominance to everyone. But really all you managed to do is make yourself look like an idiot. I learned about things like this last year. Usually someone like you needs to exercise power for a reason, and most of the time, it's because people like you are insecure." No longer had I finished what I was saying than the whole class erupted in laughter and shouting.

"Damn! Owned that bitch!" Someone yelled from the back of the classroom. All of the applause and cheers from my classmates would be something that I would normally embrace and use to build up my own ego. But not this time. This time… I was pissed off.

"Obviously your father didn't teach you any manners. I wonder if she is as immature as you are!" Mrs. Maslin yelled, damaging a nerve in me that hadn't been touched in a long time. Nobody who knows me is dumb enough to mention my mom. Even Jakob is scared to wake up that side of me, and he could probably beat my ass on any good day.

"Actually he died before I really knew him" I replied as I stood up and grabbed my book bag, barely able to retain the anger that her little comment had arisen inside of me. I began to walk out, but couldn't help but give in to the urge of wanting to say one more thing.

"Oh yeah, one more thing… Fuck you" I spat, flipping her off as I walked out of the classroom and shut the door behind me. Once I finally got outside of the building, something inside of me snapped, and I collapsed on the steps. I never really knew my dad and even though I could try to ignore it, comments like that really hit home sometimes. I tried to act all tough on the outside; but really, sometimes I couldn't help but let a small tear or depressing thought slip past my iron wall of a mental block. And the fact that some people just liked to tease me about it destroyed my faith in humanity. I sure as hell wasn't gay, but one of my favorite things about My Little Pony was its beautiful message about love and tolerance as well as acceptance.

"If only life could be more like that…" I cried softly, placing my head in my hands in a pathetic attempt to calm myself down. "If only I could live in a place like Equestria… Somewhere filled with bright colors and caring souls. Humanity is so messed up, so judgmental, so spiteful. If only I could just have a chance to start over somewhere like that…. No. I couldn't just leave Jakob behind like that… He deserves better" I sighed, finally calming myself down enough to think straight. I knew for sure that the substitute was now a new enemy of mine, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I just counted myself lucky that I didn't have to deal with Derek. But now what was I supposed to do? I had no-where to go, and if I was seen walking around campus, I would definitely get caught by one of South Meck's many security guards. So I decided to just wait it out, praying that my day would become easier from that moment on.

Once the bell finally rang, I grabbed his bag and looked at my schedule, I wasn't quite adjusted to my new classes yet. It said my next class was World History with Mr. Martin in B building. Once I had walked into the building, obviously confused at which classroom was mine, I scrambled quickly down the hallway looking for the teacher's name on one of the many doors. I didn't want to be late and risk pissing off yet another one of my teachers. When I found my classroom, I frantically dashed inside, just barely managing to beat the late bell by mere seconds. I looked around for someone that I might know, only to find that I didn't recognize a single person. At least I knew that class would be boring and slow … Just what the doctor ordered.

The rest of my day consisted of a sleep filled second block, a nice piece of school lasagna, which almost had the taste of marinara but just ended up tasting and feeling like the rubber on a tire. Third block actually wasn't too bad, having Sociology had its perks. For instance, being able to watch movies all class was a small price to pay for the weekly quiz that followed suit. I wish I could say 4th block was as great as the other three. I was walking through the hall and heard that horrible voice again.

"Hey where ya heading to Jake?" Snickered a very confident Derek from across the hallway, his comment met by the laughter of his friends. I looked over expecting to see him poking fun at a little freshman or someone who had made the mistake of getting in his way, and was completely taken back by what I saw. Of all the kids I never expected to get bullied, Jakob was one of them. And to see someone as strong and confident as him with his back to a wall as Derek, who was only an inch or two taller than him, tormented him relentlessly completely blew my mind. Jakob had always told me about his problems with Derek, but I had no idea he bullied him! He was my best friend and one of the toughest kids I had ever met, and to see him just stand there and take the abuse like he was a little kid caused me to become just as angry as I was surprised.

"Listen dude I don't know what you're problem is…" Jakob began

"What my problem is? My problem? I don't have a fucking problem; I'm practically swimming in pussy while you're at home watching "My little pony". Now either that makes you a three year old girl, or a faggot. And you sure as hell don't look like a three year old to me"

"Wow that's pretty funny…" He began, with a smile on his face, causing Derek to stare at him with a confused expression "That girl you're dating… The one I was with a year ago, what's her name again?"

"Natasha… What about her?" Derek asked, still just as confused.

"Oh nothing really, I was just curious about something…"

"What were you curious about you piece of shit" He responded back receiving yet another rally of laughter from his group of mindless followers.

"Oh … you know… just wondering if when you kiss her you still taste my cum, or if that little skank of yours finally managed to wash her mouth clean" Jakob smirked, causing a silence to fall over Derek, his face turning red with embarrassment. I had never heard someone's spirit get crushed as brutally as that before, I couldn't help but almost fall over laughing, causing Derek to look in my direction, his face going from embarrassed to angry as he began walking over in my direction. I had to give it to the guy; even iron will couldn't recover from an insult like that. Nonetheless in public, in front of all his friends.

"What the hell do you think's so funny?" He asked angrily, making a pathetic attempt to intimidate me by getting in my face.

"Oh come on now Derek. You can't really call Jakob a faggot if you're only method of scaring a guy is getting close enough to their face to kiss them" I laughed, only angering him more.

""I swear to god, Hamilton if you don't shut up I will end you"

"Dude if you're going to try and kiss me at least make sure your breath doesn't smell like road kill, holy shit that's gross" I chuckled, causing Jakob to let out a laugh.

"OK, you know what; you talk a lot of shit kid. Fight me if you're so tough."

"Did I ever say I was tough? Derek, now you're just making a fool of yourself"

"See. I told you he was just a little pussy" He laughed looking over to his friends for approval. "You won't even fight me. How the hell are you gonna talk all that shit without the balls to back it up?"

"Oh man, I'll fight you if you want. But I'm sure as hell not gonna make the first move. You aren't even worth the time it takes for me to lift a finger" I shrugged, casually leaning up against the lockers. To be honest… I really didn't want to fight him all that bad. In fact I wasn't much of a person that liked fighting all that much in the first place. I never really saw much of a point in it. There were so many different ways in which a fight could be solved without fighting, but If someone either really rubbed me the wrong way, or came at me first, I would never hesitate to put them in their place. Especially a prick like Derek.

"Alright then, let's see what you got" He challenged, stepping back and putting both of his fists up in a pathetic fighting stance. I had seen Jakob snap kids that fought like that in half, and I had learned enough from past fights on how to exploit the weaknesses of the stance itself. Derek looked like somebody that would fight like a wannabe gangster. His fists high up in the air, leaning back sharply, making it very easy to trip him up, and he wouldn't move his upper body at all, just shift his legs very slowly, making it very hard for him to dodge. I couldn't help but let out a small laugh as I eased off of the locker and stood in front of him, not even bothering to prepare myself, just leaving myself completely vulnerable, allowing him a fighting chance.

"Well… Are you gonna kick my ass or not buddy?" I laughed after standing still for about thirty seconds, waiting for the coward to make his move. "Alright then, I guess I'm done here" I chuckled, turning my back to him and beginning to make my way down the hallway towards class. As I started walking I heard the loud murmur of Derek's friends urging him on, followed by what sounded like the quick scuffling of his basketball sneakers. I knew right then that he was going to try and take a cheap shot on me from behind… Just as I had expected when I turned around to leave.

Three things that Derek didn't know about me… Firstly, just because I didn't fight, didn't mean that I COULDN'T fight. I had to deal with being picked on practically my entire life for the choices I had made, and I had received and dealt out a fair share of damage from fights. I knew how to handle myself in a fight. Secondly, Derek had bullied me for way to long not to know that I knew exactly how he fought and that I knew just how to deal with him in that kind of a situation. And thirdly as well as most importantly, by the time he had pulled back to throw his fist at the back of my head, Jakob had already rammed his shoulder into his side sending him straight into the lockers with a sickening crunch, causing all of the spectators to let out a string of "OHHH!"'s and "AHHHH!"'s.

"Thanks dude" I laughed as Jakob stood up and cocked a sideways grin at his downed opponent.

"Nice try, but I can't just let you take a cheap shot on my friend like that" He said, crossing his arms. To my surprise, everyone seemed very shocked. Jakob would always have my back, especially in a situation like that. He and I both knew he wouldn't have stepped into the fight had Derek not tried to sucker punch me. "Yeah… He isn't as tough as he looks; I think you've got this." He chuckled, residing back to leaning against his locker comfortably, Derek's friends giving him angry glares.

"Oh I have no problem with tha-"I Began but was cut off as Derek threw a quick jab and scored a direct hit on the back of my head, sending me straight to the ground. It was definitely a good hit, but it wasn't well placed, so the shot only rang my head a bit, but yet again the crowd that had managed to gather around us within a matter of seconds was in an uproar.

"Had enough?" He asked as I stood up and glared at him, almost amused by the unbelievable amount of stupidity that he must have had in taking a cheap shot on me in the first place. I looked over to Jakob to see him laughing wildly at the notion of Derek thinking I would go down that easy. I couldn't help but smile a bit as well.

"Enough? Why I'm just getting started" I spat, getting in my defensive stance, expecting his Egocentric personality to get the better of him due to the shot he had landed on me previously. Luckily for me and unfortunately for him, I was right. He ran as fast as he could towards me, swinging hard and fast with his right hand. There was something that Derek had failed to recognize when the fight began. For one, he didn't know that he just knew how to hit hard, and actually had no technique to his fighting at all. He also failed to realize that that by the time Derek had finally thrown his punch, that I had already begun the process of easily ducking under it. After I had let him swing at me once I gave him yet another chance as he made a very weak attempt to kick me in the stomach. I stepped to the side, quickly avoiding the pathetic kick and pulled back to throw my first punch right at his kidney and scored a direct hit, causing him to lean over in extreme pain. My body went into auto pilot as I decided to try something that I had never attempted before, whether it was because I was used to fighting more experienced people or not I had no clue. I lifted my right knee, pulling my leg back, and swung myself to the left as hard as I could, the inside of my foot ramming straight into his face with a gut wrenching crunch of what was probably the breaking of a jaw to everyone's disgust and my satisfaction.

"Damnit!" Derek yelled, wiping off the blood that had run down his lip after the devastating kick. Once he recovered, he charged at me, exerting every ounce of strength he had left, Derek pulled his fist back, and swung viciously. Considering how strong he was, I knew the shot would not only knock me out, it would have probably put me in a coma. Even though the guy had no fighting style whatsoever, I had to admit, I was in no mood to take a shot like that to the face. But unfortunately for him, I was one step ahead of him. I knew just how Derek fought, he was a hard hitter. Hell, every fight he won was over in one punch. But he wasn't very smart, and was also extremely predictable; making it very easy for me to figure out exactly what his next move was going to be. Dodging his punch yet again, I stuck his foot out, and diverted all of my strength to using his momentum against him. Before everyone else knew what happened, Derek was soaring through the air, flying into the lockers for the second time in a row, letting out an amusing squeal as he slammed into them. Hard. Everyone cringed at the sickening sound of him slamming into the lockers, except for me. I just stood there and grinned maliciously. I had been waiting for this for half of my life, and now that he had the chance to grab Derek by the collar, slam his face into the lockers and bash him to a bloody pulp for all the years of tormenting and harassment that he had put me through… to make him pay for every bruise I had ever received, every tear I had ever shed, every feeling of loneliness and depression his actions had inflicted upon me… For some reason… Something was holding me back.

"You know what Derek…" I sighed looking down upon the groggy, aching bully "You're not even worth my time. I told you I didn't want to fight. I never messed with you, never provoked you in any way… I never even did anything to justifiably piss you off. Heck, I would've loved to be your friend if you weren't so damn selfish. I don't even like fighting… But guess what!" I yelled, suddenly picking him up by his shirt collar, causing him to groan in pain. **"I'M FUCKING DONE!" **I screamed throwing the hardest punch I had ever swung, putting all my hate, all my rage and every ounce of my power behind it making my tormentor scream louder than I had ever heard. The sound of the impact was utterly sickening. I don't think I'd ever hit anything that hard before. I slowly pulled away, appalled at the amount of damage I had done.

"You're lucky it was the locker this time…" I growled, pulling my hand away from the now broken locker, knocked completely off of its hinges by my brutal blow. "Now if you're smart… you'll never mess with me or my friends ever again. But if you're not…" I whispered "You're face is going to wind up looking like this" I growled, pointing at the distorted piece of metal before dropping him on the floor and walking away, leaving everyone confused and appalled.

12


	2. Beginning of the End

_**Hey guys, Ashe here. This part was pretty challenging to write, but we got through it! To be honest, the real life scenes are pretty tough to write because we are trying to get through it with a strong backstory without boring you guys to death! (~_~) We understand this isn't the most exciting part, but just stick around until the plot picks up, I promise it will get much better as it goes on! Please remember this is our first fanfic, so mistakes will be there. And update every week, 7 days at the latest. Feel free to follow and review. Honest opinion please. Well, thanks guys, and stay tuned! **_

_**-Ashe**_

Jakob

"You realize that you are probably gonna get suspended for that right?" I laughed as I stepped into the car. It had been a long day and we had even more planned for the night ahead, so I was just about ready to go back to my house.

"No, not as long as nobody snitches, I think I'll be ok" Ashe shrugged as I cranked up the car and began the drive home.

"Dude, I have to admit I'm pretty impressed, I have never seen you fight like that before, it was almost bad ass… almost" I laughed.

"Yeah well then again I probably would've been on the other side of the ass beating if you wouldn't have stopped him from sucker punching me, so yeah, I guess I owe you for that one"

"Oh it's no problem man; I couldn't just let my best friend get laid out that quick could I?" I chuckled, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder "But I have to say, you're never usually that aggressive. Did something happen to you today that I don't know about?"

"I mean no… not really"

"What happened?"

"Eh nothing man, just an argument with some stupid substitute that's all" He sighed, plugging his I Phone and plugging it in to the stereo. If there was one thing that Ashe and I had in common, it was our love as well as taste in music.

"Hey put on some Stick to your Guns"

"Sure thing, what song do you wanna hear? Because I just downloaded their whole new album" Ashe said, flipping through his artists in search of one of my favorite bands of all time. I had started listening to them back when they were nothing more than a garage band, playing gigs at mowed down bars for no more than 50 bucks a show, and ever since then, even after their big break, I just couldn't stop listening to them.

"Play… We still believe" I said, watching Ashe's melancholy expression turn to one of excitement. I knew it was his favorite song, plus I didn't think it was too bad.

"Alright" He replied, clicking on the track and leaning back in his seat as the upbeat riff broke out of the silence, causing me to fan the gas pedal only to look over and see my friend glaring at me. I guess he had enough of my aggressive driving style. Sighing, I eased off of the accelerator, making him relax his death grip on the seat. I wasn't dumb enough to try my luck at speeding twice in one day with Ashe in the car.

"Don't worry I'll be chill!" I laughed "I don't want you throwing up in my car anyways"

After the fast paced guitar bridge, the bass kicked in, sound traveling loudly through the car, followed by a steady drum beat that even I couldn't help but nod my head to. Every sound flowed so smoothly,, forming a harmonious string of power chords timed perfectly along with the bass until all of the sudden, everything went silent as I looked over to Ashe and nodded my head, smiling, almost immediately the vocalist let out a perfect shout, only flaring my excitement up even more.

"We still believe!"

"I'm sick and tired of all this giving up!  
All I hear is talk, and I've had enough!  
Single minded, overwhelmingly one sided!  
Refusing humanity, does not award morality!  
Hope's not dead so we'll forever scream!  
Until it's deafening!"

Everything about this music was absolutely perfect; I couldn't help but begin to slip into a peaceful state of mind as the thought of how perfect my life was came to mind. Whenever I was younger I had my fair share of struggles. And although I hated school with every fiber of my being, it was nothing in comparison to the incomprehensible amount of torment I dealt with at home on a regular basis. If I could've had it my way, I would have lived at school. My mom left whenever I was younger, which was maybe part of the reason that I had bonded so well with Ashe in the first place. We shared a horrible but common situation. The difference was that Ashe actually loved his mom, and his mom loved him. Ever since my mother disappeared, my dad became a heavy drinker as well as easily agitated. Some nights he would just bury himself in a bottle of whiskey and mourn over his losses. What just made it worse was the beating… He would beat me on a regular basis. No one other than Ashe knew about it, if there was an honest reason to how I had learned to fight so well, it would have something to do with me growing up with an abusive dad. With me it was either run, fight back, or take it. And I took it for a while, but then I met Krystal…. And I began to realize how weak that made me… just allowing someone to dominate my life like that. To instill a sense of fear so strong into me that I lived every day as though I were walking on glass, a shadow of what I once was, afraid of everything that posed as a threat. Then one day I got sick of my father's heavy drinking, and I did something I never thought that I would do. I told him what I thought of him. I called him a weak abusive pathetic cunt who gets a selfish egotistical rise out of beating the only good thing a scumbag like him would ever have in his life. He stood up and pulled his fist back to strike me like he had so many times before, but this time, something inside of me I had hidden away for nearly a decade arose in me…. Rage.

I felt a sudden surge of self-confidence run through me as I sidestepped his drunken blow with an evil smile. He took another blind swing which I easily ducked under, taking advantage of the long recovery he required to attempt to land another blow on my 16 year old body, I used everything I had learned from my 6 years of football and with immeasurable speed, I slammed into him, lifting him off of the ground, and slammed him so hard into the wall that he collapsed into a drunken heap, completely unconscious. From that day on I swore that I would never take shit from anyone… The old pathetic Jakob was dead, and in place, I was born a strong, cold, young adult, capable of making decisions and judgments for myself. I had Ashe, a home of my own with a loving god mother who showed more affection to me in one day than my father in his entire life.

"And I have her" I muttered happily to myself, yet again staring at the picture of her above the dashboard. Everything about her was spectacular. Her long beach blonde hair, lengthy bangs swooped to the side of her forehead, covering the top of her right eye, her perfect hourglass body, legs that seemed to last forever, perfect white skin lacking a single blemish other than a few adorable freckles that covered a small amount of her nose. Her eyes were a celestial blue that seemed to capture my attention even as I simply looked at a picture of her. Even though she had a perfect body, including C cup breasts, she only stacked up to an adorably small height of 5'2, yet another thing to love about her.

She was in to almost everything I was into, hell; she actually sat down and watched MLP with me on several occasions! When I finally came out of the stables and told her I was a brony, I literally expected her to break up with me. Instead she did the exact opposite. She was the only person other than Ashe to support me. And to make things even better I was going to get to see her that night.

"Jakob?..." Ashe asked, snapping me out of my thoughts "You good?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking, that's all." I mumbled, pulling into his neighborhood to drop him off.

So I hear Stick to your guns is going to open up for Chelsea Grin tonight at the concert tonight! Aren't you excited dude!"

"Oh… yeah…." I laughed nervously, trying to avoid eye contact with my friend

"Oh come on, are you still nervous?"

"Well it is my first concert…"

"No it's not. You went to that Hannah Montana concert when you were ten" Ashe laughed as I pulled up at his house, causing me to spin around and face him.

"Hey! Th-That's not fair!" I stammered, my face going a bit red from embarrassment. "I only went to see her because I thought she was hot ok!"

"Yeah whatever. When are you gonna pick me up?" He asked, grabbing his book bag off of the floor board.

"Well it starts at six, so probably 5-ish" I said as Ashe opened up his car door and slid out of his seat.

"Alright, see you later BBQ"

"What the hell did I say about you calling me that?" I growled; face palming, causing Ashe to stifle a laugh. I never understood the reasoning behind all of the silly little nicknames he would come up with.

"Sure thing, have fun masturbating to Hannah Montana!" He yelled from his doorstep

"Yeah, and you have fun clopping to Pinkie Pie!" I shouted back, putting the car into drive and revving the engine to drown out his last comeback.

"Bye bye!" I yelled one last time as I accelerated and zoomed off in the direction of my house, glancing back in my rear view mirror to see Ashe Flicking me off and yelling something that I couldn't quite understand.

As much as I loved rock, especially the more hardcore genre of it, I was a bit scared to go to the concert. Ever since I was younger, I had constantly been fed stories about how people, usually guys in their early 20's, would go to concerts like that with mouth pieces and literally just beat the shit out of everyone that jumped into the pit. Even Ashe had told me that he was going to be a bit cautious, and his first concert was spent watching a death metal band named Oceano. He told me that when he first jumped into the fray, he accidentally bumped into a guy that looked to be about 30, and the guy literally just beat the hell out of him right then and there. Nobody said a thing. I could, handle myself against someone my age, but give a fully grown man a couple cups of beer, and I'll think more than just twice about taking him on.

"I've just gotta calm down, I'm sure everything will be great" I mumbled optimistically as I turned to corner into my driveway and put the car in park, pausing for a moment to close my eyes and calm down. One way or another, I was going to see this show… I had to.

Ashe's Point of View 

"God I am so FUCKING ready!" I yelled, pounding my chest in excitement as I cranked the speakers up full blast, eager to get my adrenaline pumping in preparation for the night ahead. I had taken my fair share of ass beatings definitely take at concerts like this, and I was ready. It was going to take place at one of the more shady clubs downtown, so I knew I would most likely take a couple of hits before it was over. I would just have to deal with it. Plus, with the amount of adrenaline that would be pumping through my veins, I would have probably cared less.

"Ashe! turn it down!" A feminine voice yelled from downstairs, almost completely drowned out by the deep growls exhumed from the 300$ speaker system that was mounted of my wall.

"Fine!" I yelled, rolling my eyes as I grabbed the remote and turned it down and went to get changed. "Let's see here… I want to look good, but at the same time I want to wear something comfortable so that I can jump around without getting too tired…" I had this inner conflict so many times before going to a show, but tonight was different. It was the first and most likely that last time I would ever get to see my favorite band live…. Chelsea Grin. I had started listening to them when I was 14, and always found it easy to connect to their lyrics, as well as to head bang to every song they ever came out with. I decided against myself confident side just to wear a pair of gym short, my vans, and my "We Came as Romans" T-Shirt.

"Hey Ashe! Could you come down here for a minute?" My mom shouted, breaking my train of thought. I slipped my shirt on and ran down the stairs, still high from the music that had filled my ears just moment before.

"What's up mom?"

"Ok two things. Firstly, when are you going to get back, and how are you going to get there?" She asked, relaxing in her favorite recliner, drinking from a small glass filled halfway with red wine. Unlike Jakob, I considered myself pretty lucky to have a parent that drank lightly. My mom was always more of a friend to me than anything, and over the past couple of years we had worked out a relationship of trust. As long as I didn't do anything to piss her off or get myself in trouble, she was always pretty much cool with me doing whatever I wanted.

"Well I should be back at around eleven or so, and Jakob's gonna swing by and grab me in about ten minutes."

"Alright. Well I would tell you to be safe, but knowing how you are when you listen to your music, I guess all I can ask is for you not to do anything too stupid" She winked with a laugh.

"No promises" I chuckled in return. If there was one thing that I loved about my mother more than anything else it was her high spirited sense of humor. She was always supportive of my choices and seemed to hold me above herself, and I would always respect her for that.

"Ok, well, looks like your ride's here a bit earlier than expected" She said, raising an eyebrow as she looked out the window to see Jakob casually leaning against the hood of his car. My mom smiled happily at my friend, to which he responded with a wave. If Jakob would have had to choose his best friend other than me, he probably would have chosen my mom. Ever since we met when he and I were both just ten, he never had a mother figure, so my mom would talk to him and treat him as though he were her own son. Eventually, Jakob started calling her mom just as much as I did. When he was asked who his mother was, he would always say my mom's name without a second's hesitation.

"Ok, see you later ma!" I yelled as I walked out the front door and shut it behind me. I shivered for a moment, breathing in the cold air and attempting to warm myself.

"Let's get a move on!" Jakob shouted from across the front yard. "I want to get there early, we're gonna meet Chase there!"

"Fantastic" I sighed, sliding into the passenger seat. Chase was his older brother, and I hated him even more than every bully I had ever had to deal with. He had gotten Jakob into so much trouble when he was younger, and was only an aid for his heavy drinking problems. If Jakob every wanted drugs, alcohol, or any other form of illegal substance, Chase was always there. When he went through his stage of depression before he met Krystal, Chase was the one that handed him the Oxi Cotton that he almost killed himself with! And no matter how much I begged him, no matter how much of a bad influence I told him Chase was, Jakob never seemed to believe me. Maybe it was just the fact that they both grew up with the same abusive father, and only had each other to rely on for support. I never knew what made Jakob want to be friends with a man who was mixed up in such a bad crowd, but if it weren't for me, he would have followed in suit with his older brother.

"Ashe! Hey!" He yelled, snapping me out of my day dream and back into reality, coming to find we were already going down the main road that lead to downtown Charlotte.

"Sorry dude i- SHIT!" I yelled in pain, clutching my head and closing my eyes, immediate pain shooting through me for no apparent reason whatsoever. All of the sudden, the pain began to fade, and a scene slowly opened up in front of me.

"_Ashe! You have to let me go!" Jakob shouted, tears welling in his eyes as his voice cracked. I could see the immense amount of fear in his eyes, and I wasn't about to just let my best friend fall to his death for a reason that I couldn't even comprehend._

"_Jakob I'm not letting you go!" You don't know what the hell you're doing; you are going to get yourself killed!" I screamed as he desperately tried to break free of the death grip I had on his arm._

"_I don't care Ashe! You are my best friend, but I can't let her die like this… I- I have to try." He growled, suddenly the fear in his eyes replaced by a look of determination and selflessness. I hadn't seen a look like that in his eyes since the day I fought Derek. "I'm not going to let her go! I need to apologize, she never deserved anything like this! I know it may seem rash but I only have so much time! Ashe… You have to let me go" He said shakily, choking back tears._

_As much as every fiber of my being screamed for me to pull my friend back up into the stadium, something told me he was telling the truth. Something told me even if I did pull Jakob back up, he'd just try to jump off of the edge again after her. I just didn't understand why he would be willing to give his life up for someone he hated so much. I had never seen him like this before, and I couldn't help but find a strong sense of admiration for his bravery. Maybe he wanted to save her because of the guilt that was eating at him from the night before. And I don't know what it was… but the look in his eyes told me that it was much more than that. I didn't want to think it was true… I mean he barely knew her. But only one thing could drive him to do this._

"_You love her… don't you?" I asked, causing a blank expression to sprawl over his face as he attempted to take in the words that had just left my quivering lips. The look of determination slowly faded and replaced by one of melancholy._

"_I won't find out unless you let me go" He groaned, looking away from me as tears began to flow freely down his face._

_I couldn't just let my friend hang while the one he cared so much for plummeted to her death. I knew what I had to do… It wouldn't be easy, but it had to be done. I leaned over the railing and brought him close, whispering four words into his ear that I knew would stick with him throughout his entire fall._

"_Bring her back alive" I said with a smile, starting to cry as well. I put my hand over his as we made eye contact one last time and smiled at one another in a form of brotherly understanding, then, I let go and watched my best friend close his eyes, cross his arms, and plummet head first to what was probably going to be a quick and brutal death_

"NO!" I screamed, snapping back into reality, causing Jakob to slam on the brakes and almost crash into the minivan in the lane to our left.

"ASHE! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" He screamed after swerving through four highly populated lanes of highway traffic into the lane of deceleration so that he could slow down and regain his composure after my sudden outburst.

"I-I don't know" I stammered, trying to search through my mind in an attempt to find out the reasoning behind me horrible daymare. "I had a really bad day dream is all"

"What happened in it?"

"Well… We were in some kind of a stadium or something with a hole in the center that just led to a huge drop to the ground. Like I'm talking huge, like 5 or 6 thousand feet. And there was some girl or something that fell through the whole and you were dangling over the edge and I was holding you by the arm. You were determined to save her, whoever she was. I tried to pull you up, but my body was on auto pilot and… and… I let you go." I choked out, trying to hold back a few tears that had formed in my eyes in remembrance of the horrible dream

"Hey, it's alright! Look! We're here" He laughed as he patted me on the back in an attempt to cheer me up. I looked up from the floor to see the beat up urban looking club, a small smile covering my face in excitement.

"Yeah, finally. So are you excited or what?" I laughed as we stepped out of the car and began the walk to the ghetto looking venue.

"Well… Sort of" Jakob shrugged

"Still a bit nervous huh? Look, tell ya what. We don't have to go into the pit unless you want to, but I'm going to be honest, by the end of the night, I don't think you'll be able to hold yourself back from trying it"

"Alright, that makes me feel better… Hey I want to thank you…" He said suddenly as we got the X's on our hands from a man standing outside of the club, indicating the bar tender that we weren't 21 and couldn't get a drink.

"Wait, what do you want to thank me for?"

"Just for being such a good friend to me. Other than Krystal, you're all I have or need. Speaking of Krystal, where the hell is she?" He asked as we stepped into the dimly lit room "She was supposed to be here"

"Well I have no clue, I still haven't gotten to meet her remember?" I chuckled. It was true, in the year that Jakob and Krystal had been together, I still hadn't gotten the chance to meet her. The closest I ever came to seeing her was the picture hanging from Jakob's rear view mirror in his car.

"Hey! Jake! Ashe! Get your asses over here!" Yelled an all too familiar voice from the back of the room, making me cringe.

"Come on, let's not keep the man waiting" Jakob laughed as he dragged me to the booth that his big brother and another girl were sitting in.

"How's my little brother doing?" Chase asked, ruffling my friend's hair. "Man, when are you gonna get a god damn haircut?"

"When the girls start to complain about it!" He shouted back. Even though Jakob and Chase were brothers, if you met them in public, you would automatically assume they were just close friends because of their constant back and forth comic insults.

"That's my brother!" He shouted merrily "So you gonna meet your girl here?"

"Yeah she should be here any minute"

"Alright. Hey! How about I buy you guys each a beer?" Chase asked looking over at me "You sure as hell look like you need one Ashie" He laughed, causing Jakob to chuckle as well.

Usually, I was a completely straight edge kid. I made straight A's, never smoked, never drank, never did drugs, and I had my priorities straightened out perfectly. I swore to myself that I would never do anything stupid like that for fear that I would get addicted to something and wind up ruining my temporarily perfect life. But whenever I was at a show, I had a completely different mentality.

"Ehhhh why not?" I shrugged as Chase stood up with what looked like his girlfriend and walked over to the bar to buy me and my friend an overpriced glass of beer.

"Ashe Hamilton…" Jakob said with a cocky smile. "Did you just say yes to a chance to get drunk?" He asked, talking to me like I was an 8 year old with a bit of sarcasm in his voice"

"Hey, just because I don't drink all the time like you doesn't mean I don't like to unwind and have a little fun every once in a while!"

"It's about time you pulled that alcohol proof plug out of your ass!" He laughed as one of the local rock bands began to play, forcing us to talk a little louder.

"Yeah whatever dude" I chuckled, sitting down in the booth next to Jakob as Chase walked up with what looked like two gallons of beer.

"Jesus Chase" Jakob shouted "are those glasses for us?"

"Yeah. Well you are my little brother, so I figured you of all the people in this club should be able to handle a quart of beer" He laughed, sliding into the booth as well.

"Oh stop being such a little bitch and drink up Jakob" I said as I picked up my glass and downed about a third of it within thirty seconds, only to look over and see that Jakob had already finished most of his and had a was wearing a confident smirk.

"Who are you calling a little bitch? You drink like a Christian pastor" He laughed as he stood up and finished the rest of his glass.

"Oh yeah?" I challenged "Watch this" I said, and with that, finished off the rest of my glass within twenty seconds, immediately feeling like throwing up afterwards. I looked up with a confident smirk only to see my friend and his brother laughing, Jakob practically rolling around on the floor.

"What are you laughing about?" I yelled, my head beginning to spin.

"I only drank about half of mine; Chase finished the first half while you weren't looking! Dude you are going to feel so out of it in about thirty seconds! Come on lets go up front, I think Chelsea Grin's about to play!" He said as he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the booth and ran towards the stage.

Jakob's Point of View

I couldn't believe how stupid Ashe was for actually taking my dare and downing that whole glass, but that didn't matter as long as he got loosened up so that we could both have a good time. I heard the familiar sound of the intro to my favorite band's new album play as I dragged Ashe to the very front in front of the now completely dark stage.

While I was nervous for the concert, I was also excited. I had listened to this band for so long, and the fact that I was finally going to see them live was astounding.

"What's the matter? Don't feel so good huh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my now groggy friend. I knew from the beginning that he couldn't hold alcohol as well as I could but the fact that he looked dead face drunk after one measly glass of beer was hilarious.

"Oh shut up, they're about to play" He muttered in return, closing his eyes for a moment to regain his balance. "Look, here they come now" He pointed as the band ran the stage and the electronic beat that I recognized so very well began to play. Only a few white strobe lights were flashing, setting the mood for the vicious breakdown that I waited for so expectantly. All of the sudden the vocalist let out a spine tingling shriek, followed by the evil sounding riff of the lead guitarist, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. I looked over to Ashe only to find that he had the same expression as me, a cocky smile, baring his teeth, fists clenched as we began to slowly jump to the beat.

"No more heroes!

No more time!

No more sadness!

No more lies!"

The drums began to play as the vocalist raised his arms up in the air, looking around at all of the people gathered there for one purpose. I shook my arms out and began to slowly bang my head as I jumped, getting ready for the massive breakdown that was signaled by the violin, growing louder and louder. A pit began to open up in the center of the room. Barely able to contain myself, I walked into the center of the pit and began to stomp around, establishing my dominance in a way that practically dared anyone looking in my direction to mess with me. Then all of the sudden everything stopped as I stood still, the stage went completely dark as Ashe stepped in beside me, and for a moment, everything was still. Even the crowd went silent for what they knew was coming. Then all of the sudden, a blood red light filled the previously dark room with an eerie bright light.

"PROMISE ME!" He screamed, the guitar and drums picking up after his scream, thrashing in a harmonious rhythm as the crowd exploded into a chaotic uproar of cursing and yelling. Everyone in the pit began to dance around wildly, fists being thrown in every direction as the band continued to play harder and harder, the vocalist looking down, smiling on the amount of anarchy he had instilled into the once calm and controlled crowd.

I heard another breakdown coming, and was all at once filled with a feeling of rage, confidence, and chaos. I could feel everything, the bass running through me, making my body vibrate in a blissful manner. The fast paced drums pounding in my ears, making me lose all sense of self control. And most of all, the deep, brutal sounds that blared from the guitarist, filling the room with his beautiful riffs and power cords, only urging the crowd further into the excited frenzy that had already consumed it.

As I began to realize the scene that was playing out around me, I found it harder and harder to keep myself under control. Then finally the moment came where the lead guitarist held a D cord, and I lost it. I winded myself up, and slung all of my weight to the side while jumping up into the air, forming what looked almost like a whirlwind kick. My feet hit the ground and I used my momentum and jumped one more time, all of the sudden feeling my right foot slam into something. I turned around, adrenaline still coursing through my veins, to see a kid that looked to be only 13 or 14. I could tell from the confused expression he wore, that I had just knocked the living shit out of him. He finally woke up from his half unconscious state and looked up to see my, my fist balled up, teeth bared, an angry look covering my face, and he immediately started to crawl back, looking as though he was scared for his life.

I opened my left hand and brought it back, only to swing it back down at the teen that lay above me, causing him to close his eyes in preparation for the hit he was sure was unavoidable. I laughed as I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up, confusing him.

"Did you think I was going to beat the shit out of you or something?" I shouted over the loud music, barely able to hear myself think.

"Well yeah dude!" He yelled back as I let out another laugh and patted him on the back.

"Now go kill somebody!" I screamed, catching him off guard as I flung him back into the pit.

The next thirty minutes went by with me and Ashe side by side, jumping around, swinging our arms, kicking wildly, and spinning viciously. But the moves we were putting on display weren't just thrown in as a way to vent. The hardcore thrashing we were so eagerly showing off was a work of art, and took months to perfect. Every kick, every jump, every step had to be timed perfectly with the music to form a sync between the brutal sound that exhumed from the speakers, and the well-formed dancing to create a beautiful display of controlled chaos. Even I myself had practiced for half a year, and still didn't have it quite perfected.

The music began to slow down due to the break between the songs, and everyone seemed to calm down for a moment. After a few seconds of well-earned rest, the vocalist yet again made his way to the edge of the stage and with a smile, raised his hands up and spread them apart. He repeated the motion until the crowd began to understand what he was getting at. Almost immediately, the audience began to split into two sides that directly faced one another. As soon as I saw the crowd began to split apart, I knew exactly what was going to happen. I had seen this so many times before through my TV or computer, but I never thought I would be able to experience something this barbaric live, nonetheless, get to participate in it… The Wall of Death.

I suddenly felt something grab me by the arm, and looked over to see an adrenaline filled Ashe smiling evilly. He proceeded to quickly drag me over to the right side of the venue as the vocalist began to speak.

"Alright guys, here are the rules for the wall of death. You see that guy across the room? That guy looking at you funny... Fucking kill him" He finished, taking a swig of water as the crowd was yet again in an uproar. "This song is the last song we are going to play, it's called Revenant, we are Chelsea Grin, now go fuck somebody up!" He screamed.

"Here we go!" Ashe yelled as the guitarist strummed a higher note, causing a high pitched whining sound to emit from the amplifiers. He held it for about five seconds, until the vocalist got down to his knees, and screamed so loudly, he was probably heard in the county opposite of us.

"I'M INSIDE YOUR HEAD!"

And with that, the two sides began to run at one another. I looked around and quickly picked my target, an older guy who looked to be in his early thirty's who was probably a couple of inches taller than I was. As each side grew closer and closer to one another, I began to sprint faster and faster, pulling away from the right side as I forced every ounce of energy I had left into my legs, charging towards my target. He saw me and also began to pull away from his side with an excited grin as he ran towards me. Just as the fast paced riff set in, I jumped, throwing all of my strength into my right elbow as I brought it down and struck a devastating blow to his head in midair, sending us both to the ground as the sides finally clashed, creating what seemed like a miniature war, neither side able to gain an upper hand due to the large amount of people slamming into one another. I desperately tried to get up but found myself being trampled violently. I finally stood up and made my way out of the dangerous war zone and over to the booth where my brother had previously sat. He was now gone, probably somewhere in the pit. I took a break for a moment to examine my injuries. I had a busted lip, a couple of scrapes and bruises, but really nothing serious.

"Oh shit! Ashe!" I yelled, realizing I had just left my friend behind. I quickly ran over to where the wall of death once was, only to find that it had dissipated, and the song was now slowing down to an end. I looked around but he was nowhere to be seen. I ran over to the bar to see if he was buying a red bull but he wasn't there. I ran to the bathroom to see if he had gotten messed up during the Wall of Death and was checking himself over, but he wasn't their either. I even made my way up to the second story of the building to see if he was lounging around, but he wasn't their either. As I walked back to the booth to grab my jacket to go check if he was waiting for me out by the car, I caught sight of him by the entrance, his back facing me. I went to yell out his name, but noticed that he was occupied by something that seemed pretty important.

I couldn't help but let out a laugh as I looked over to see him kissing someone. Ashe was usually one of the last guys who had enough confidence to kiss a girl that he had just met, nonetheless get so sensual with her, but I guess the beer had done something to him. As I walked over to his side, I saw that they weren't just kissing, they were making out. Ashe had his right hand around her waist while his left hand slithered around every inch of her body, caressing every perfect curve that the girl seemed to have. She seemed to be groping him quite a bit too, causing him to pin her aggressively against the wall in an expression of drunken excitement, and she seemed to love every minute of it. The girl bit his lip, slowly pulling away to shoot him a lustful look that only seemed to drive him further into excitement.

I went over to cock block my friend, not only to be an asshole, but also to stop them from having sex in a public place. I had a list of things I wanted to do that night, but getting arrested was definitely not one of them. However, the nearer I drew to stop my friend, the more that the girl that he was toying with began to look familiar. It was strange, but she really did look like someone I knew. The closer I came the more I came to recognize her. I began to walk faster, unable to believe my eyes. It couldn't be who I thought it was… It wasn't possible. Nothing this tragic could ever happen to me when I had done so little to deserve it. Once I was finally close enough to be one hundred percent sure who the girl was, I turned and ran out the back exit, tears filling my eyes, unable to get the picture of my best friend and the love of my life kissing out of my head.

Ashe's Point of View

"Well she was easy" I chuckled to myself as I made my way out of the club and towards Jakob's car. "She was pretty damn hot though, I'll give her that" I admitted. Most girls usually didn't even give me a second glance, and the feeling of getting sexual with one for the first time in my life was amazing, and I couldn't wait to tell my friend about it. After the mystery girl had left, I looked around the club for a while trying to find Jakob, but once I saw that his jacket was gone, I assumed that he had already walked out to the car and was waiting for me there.

I walked out onto the sidewalk, still looking around for my friend who had so suddenly disappeared. I turned around the corner and looked out across the street, and then I began to feel something peculiar… it seemed as though someone was breathing down my neck.

I turned around; geared up for the fight of my life, only to be greeted by Jakob, a blank look sprawled across his face.

"Jesus dude, don't scare me like that!" I sighed, relieved that i wasn't about to get jumped or mugged. These were definitely not the kind of streets you wanted to be out on late at night

" Jakob, dude? Are you ok-" I began, but was unable to continue my sentence, due to the hand clutched around my neck, I looked down, barely able to breathe, expecting to see him laughing and smiling, thinking that this was only a joke, but was surprised to see my best friend's eyes filled with an unadulterated hate that I had never seen before. He looked as though he had been crying, and it was obvious that whatever had pissed him off so much, was my fault.

All of the sudden, he screamed, throwing me into the street. I stood up just in time to dodge an oncoming car

"Dude, what the hell?" I coughed as he made his way towards me and pulled back his arm only to lay a jaw breaking punch against my face, sending me back down to the ground. I didn't know what I did, but I wasn't going to let him push me around like this. I stood up and smashed my fist against his face. Jakob was my best friend; and I wasn't sure if we had ever fought this seriously, but I wasn't just going to let him pulverize me, even if he was stronger than me.

It only killed the very low amount of faith I had in myself more as he grabbed me and pinned me against someone's car, pulling his arm back in an attempt to land a quick jab on my face. I barely managed to push him hard enough to knock him back, then I laid a crushing kick on his chest, I ran into the street to try and grab him, oblivious to the approaching headlights, I felt a monumental force slam into my stomach.

I fell to the ground and felt myself slide a good ten feet, blood spraying from my lower section, a small crowd had gathered during the fight, full of cheering people which now echoed screams of panic. I was afraid to look down at the rest of my body; for fear or what I already knew had happened. I averted my sight towards Jakob or, what was left of him. Blood puddled in the street, Was...was he dead? My best friend? I teared up at the thought.

The curiosity began to finally get to me as I looked down; finally working up enough courage to inspect the damage that had been done by what I was sure was a car. I let out a scream of horror and disgust as I looked down to see once perfectly healthy bones and skin mangled and cracked, pieces of me that were inside of me just moments before were now jabbing through my skin, causing me to protrude a large puddle of blood that only seemed to grow larger and larger.

After about thirty seconds of just lying there, trying to hold myself together, physically and mentally, my vision began to slowly blur and I could hear a faint ringing in my ears. As the pain slowly faded away, so did my sight and all other senses. The screams of the crowd slowly went silent; the sight of my mangled body fading from my eyes, and my mind went blank. The pain was non-existent as I coughed up blood and mumbled the last words I would ever speak.

"Am… Am I. Dead? "And with that, everything faded away as I was swept off of my feet and out of reality and into the cold embrace of death from which I was sure I would never return…

_**Wait… Are the main characters dead? How could this already happen? If you're asking these questions, you should probably stick around, because this is only the beginning!**_

_**Well… That was Chapter 2! Not my best word but I hope you guys enjoyed it! I can't promise that all of my chapters that are lengthy like this will be out as quick as this one, but I'll do my best to have chapter three out by the end of the week. Anyways, don't forget to review! See you later babes!**_

_**-Jakob**_


	3. The Rage

_**Hey guys Jakob here again! I've been struggling a bit lately on where exactly I'm wanting the plot to go, and I've been working on the summary lately with Ashe, and I'm pretty sure we have almost everything figured out!**_

_**Anyway, here's chapter three, hope you all enjoy! And again, please don't forget to leave a review! By the way, I know this is insanely short, but the length of each chapter is going to be different every time, so you might see things like this every once in a while. I promise I'll do my best to get you guys another update before Christmas.**_

_**-Jake**_

Jakob

I desperately tried to hold back tears as I geared every ounce of strength I had into beating my best friend into the ground. What Ashe had done was downright unforgivable, and I couldn't figure out how in hell he could be so heartless. The two people that meant the most to me… The two I couldn't live another day, take another step, or draw in another breath without… Had betrayed me.

But now wasn't the time to feel any form of self-pity or remorse for what I had seen. Now was the time to act. All I could think about was how furious I was at Ashe for what he had done as I made another attempt to pound his face in with my right elbow, exerting all the force from my pent up rage. I could never imagine myself doing anything to purposely hurt my friend, or the love of my life… But after what they had done… I wanted nothing more than for both of them to burn in hell for all of eternity, and if anyone was to send them there, I would make sure it was me.

Ashe barely managed to dodge my elbow as I brought it down; shattering the passenger's side window of the car he was leaning against. I could see the fear in his eyes which only seemed to infuriate me more. After dodging my wildly thrown elbow, he leaned back against the car and brought his knee upwards, then kicked with all of his strength in an attempt to get as far away from me as possible. His well-aimed kick sent me staggering to the ground. I hadn't seen him fight like this before. Whenever Ashe fought Derek, he was calm and controlled, but due to the large amounts of alcohol he already had flowing through him, his self-control seemed to have disappeared, replaced by a drunken agitation that seemed to grow stronger the harder he fought.

He ran back into the street in an all too obvious attempt to try and finish me off while I was down. I smiled cockily to myself as I examined every possible weak point that I could exploit to its fullest potential. I stood up quickly and prepared myself while he drew closer and closer to me, hatred gripping at the very strings of my heart, causing me to grit my teeth in anxiety as he pulled his fist back.

I wasn't really sure what happened after that intense moment. I just remembered the sound of a loud horn, the flashing of headlights, and the screeching of tires… Then… Black.

**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**

"Oh god… My head" I groaned, sitting up and slowly rubbing my eyes. "I think that was probably the worst nightmare I've had in weeks" I stretched and rubbed the back of my head. As I sat up I noticed that something felt… off. I sat there silently with my eyes closed as I tried to assess what exactly I was feeling. I couldn't help but feel a little… Numb. As a matter of fact, I couldn't really feel anything at all.

I quickly opened my eyes, afraid that my horrible nightmare was all too true; I looked down at my body to find myself in nothing but the shorts that I had worn to the concert.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I screamed as I looked over my torso to find that I was covered in a number of scars and gashes. I wasn't bleeding, but they looked fresh, as though the event that caused this had just taken place.

"No… No… The car… I can't be dead!" I yelled to no one in particular as I began to tear up at the thought of my life being over. I knew that what Ashe and Krystal had done was terrible, but that didn't mean I wanted to just throw my life away. It was that moment when I finally looked up from my mangled torso to check my surroundings, only to find that there were none. White. All that I saw anywhere I looked was white. My jaw dropped as I stood up, trying to take in the sight that I was beholding. It was the most calm and beautiful, yet horrifying and disturbing thing that I had ever laid my eyes on.

"Please… Wake up" I groaned to myself, closing my eyes, wishing for all of this to go away. I wanted to go home. I wanted to breathe again, to feel again. I wanted to see my best friend again… Even if it was only to rip his head off. I had never been so angry before.

"If only I had something to hit… I swear to god, if I ever see him again, I'm going to fucking end him"

"**That's it… Let it out. He was your best friend and he betrayed you. You have every right to end his life" **Boomed a thunderous voice from out of nowhere, causing me to wince as it continued to ring in my ears, even after he was done speaking.

"Who the hell are you?" I yelled, rapidly looking around for the source of the loud voice, only to find that I was still enshrouded in white.

"**I am your only true friend now…" **The voice spoke again, this time a bit softer. It was strange… the voice sounded so familiar, but no matter how much I thought about it, I could not figure out who it was. After all was quiet for a moment, I began to contemplate the fact that I may have just been going crazy, until he spoke again.

"**What your friend did… What they both did to you was unforgivable. If I were in your situation, I would focus all my energy on making them die a slow, painful death"** The anonymous voice suggested, a hint of anger at the end of his sentence. I was so clueless as to what was happening, who this strange voice was, how I got here, and what would happen next, I sat down and began to breathe slowly in an attempt to clear my mind.

"Alright, I know I'm probably crazy here…. But honestly who gives a shit. Who are you?" I asked, not expecting anything but silence in response.

"**I am your only friend Jakob."** He said in a much softer voice, causing me to jump back to my feet and start hyperventilating again.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?" I yelled, becoming agitated at the mysterious voice. " I don't think you know this, but I've had a pretty shitty day, so either you stop screwing with my head, or I'll kill you to!"

"**Good… Let your anger take control. Let your hate flow through you and be your motivator. It makes you strong.**"

"Fuck off!" I screamed, desperately glancing all across the barren whit wasteland for something to take my anger out on. All of the sudden, a mirror appeared in front of me. It was strange, but I was too furious to think about why it was there. I pulled back in preparation to smash the mirror, but just as I was about to bring my fist down, shattering the glass into pieces, something in the mirror caught my eyes.

"**Destroy him… Just like he destroyed you…"** The voice growled, clearly annoyed at my hesitation. I looked in the mirror for a moment and glanced over myself… Or what I thought was me. My eyes were glowing a faint red, and I seemed to be surrounded by a very hazy blood colored aura. I could practically see all of my rage and hatred fuming off of my body. Every single vein and muscle on my body seemed to stand out on end, clenched tightly, as though I was preparing for a fight. As I looked angrily into the mirror, I saw Ashe appear beside me, and all rational thoughts faded away, replaced by horrible thoughts. Thoughts of the things I would do to the boy I used to consider my best friend. I wanted to rip his throat out… To tear him limb from limb… To bash his face in with anything I could possibly find. As these thoughts passed through me, the red aura surrounding my body only seemed to glow brighter and brighter as I stood there looking into the mirror. I couldn't hold it back any longer. Nothing mattered, the voice, my death, Krystal, nothing. I just wanted with every fiber of my being; with every ounce of energy I had left… to kill Ashe.

"AGHH!" I screamed at the top of my lungs in a distorted voice, as though I was possessed by some kind of demon. I pulled back again and kicked the mirror, smashing it with immeasurable speed. I looked down at the broken pieces that once contained the image of my friend and smiled. I had never felt this much power running through me. I had felt insane amounts of adrenaline in my lifetime, but they were nothing compared to this. I could literally feel myself buzzing with energy as my heart began to beat at its steady pace.

"You're fucking dead Ashe" I chuckled evilly to myself, completely un-aware that the thunderous voice was laughing along with me. And just as soon as I felt all the power running through my veins, it was gone, and all of the white that had previously seemed to completely fill the mysterious place I was stuck in, disappeared, replaced with darkness.

"**So your journey begins" **I heard the voice laugh just before everything faded away, and I was yet again completely enveloped in a soothing black as the strange barren land of white slowly faded from my vision.

_**Huh, wonder what the mysterious voice means by his journey… Journey to what? **_

_**Again, sorry if this was very short, but I felt like this was good enough for one chapter, and again I promise that the next one will be about as long as the first two. Anyway, have a great day/night guys! And I don't want to beg, but if you enjoy this story or if you want to give constructive criticism, PLEASE feel free to review! Bye guys**_


	4. Welcome to Our World

_**Jakob here again with another chapter! Hope you guys like this one! I tried to make it extra-long because I know you all are probably sick of the cliffhangers by now, so I figured I owed something to you. We officially have the whole plot figured out now, and I decided I'd throw you guys a quick warning, it is going to get VERY violent later on, so if you have a problem with that… Well then that sucks xD.**_

_**Anyway, as always, please review! And if you enjoy this story don't forget to follow/favorite! Also one more thing. Before I forget, be sure to check out my friend IslandAlbatross! He is working on an MLP fan fiction as well and I have to admit, it is fantastic! But enough of my incessant talking, enjoy the chapter!**_

Ashe

"I knew that hangovers could suck, but I feel like I just got hit by a god damn car" I half groaned half laughed to myself as I sat up, sore all over. I had faced the repercussions of being stupid enough to let Jakob bait me into drinking before, but I couldn't for the life of me remember a quarter of what had happened the night before. All I could muster up inside my aching head was the thought of jumping around, kissing some girl that I didn't even know, and walking out. After that everything seemed to be nothing more than a blur to me.

I chuckled to myself, amazed at the high level of stupidity that I probably displayed the previous night. I was never able to hold alcohol as well as my friend. I mean for god's sake, he was Irish, German, and Russian! He practically had alcohol proof jeans! Whether I acted like a complete idiot, I was sure he would rag on me for week to come about what a fool I made of myself.

I sat up and stretched my arms, letting out a loud yawn. I slowly opened my eyes, and immediately found myself in disbelief. At first… I thought it was a dream. I stood up quickly, darting my eyes left and right, trying to take in the scene around me. I was in the very center of what looked to be a meadow. The grass was fairly short, there were birds in the sky, and abundance of butterflies seemed to fill a fair portion of the air around me, and to my dismay, the sun was shining very brightly. I had no idea where I was, but that wasn't really what I was focused on. Everything around me looked very… different. All of my surroundings seemed much more colorful than on earth. It wasn't like what I normally saw, it was as if the contrast of the normal colors that I was used to seeing in everyday life had been increased, making everything look somewhat like a cartoon.

Suddenly something clicked inside my head, causing my eyes to open widely. These colors… They all looked very familiar. As though I had seen them somewhere before. I mean sure, there were a lot of children's cartoons that I would flip through to get to shows or movies that I enjoyed watching on TV, but something about these colors seemed very distinctive… Like I had seen them on many occasions before for long periods of time. It was right on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As I looked around the meadow, I heard something that sounded like another person, completely throwing me off guard.

I glanced over to my right to see Jakob sitting up and rubbing his eyes before looking around in an attempt to take in his surroundings. He looked about as surprised as I was, I couldn't help but laugh a bit at my friends reaction. Jakob's eyes quickly darted in my direction, a smile of relief spreading across his face when he realized who had laughed. But as soon as his smile had appeared, it vanished. Replaced by a look of disgust and hate.

At first I was confused and looked behind me to see what he was staring so furiously at. Then I realized who he was staring at. He was glaring over at me. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why, taking it as some sort of a joke, I smiled again and began to walk towards my friend. He stood up slowly, the rage filled looks still covering his face as he glared intently into my eyes, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. That was the moment that I knew for sure he wasn't joking.

"Jakob? What's wrong with you?" I asked, laughing nervously whilst rubbing the back of my neck, trying my best to break the awkward silence that had fallen between us. Instead of a laugh or smile that I had expected from my friend, he just stood there and clenched his fists angrily, continuing to stare at me to the point in which I was afraid to break eye contact with him.

"OK listen, I don't know what's up with you or whatever, but you gotta cut this shit out, it's starting to freak me out a bit" I snapped, my mood turning from relieved to agitated as Jakob continued to stand in the same spot, completely silent. I didn't know what was wrong with him. He was never like this unless you REALLY pissed him off, and we had never even really had an argument, nonetheless a fight; which only led me to become even more confused as I attempted to wrap my mind around exactly what was going on.

"How… dare you…" Jakob mumbled quietly, causing me to look up in surprise, only to find that the anger that was once evident in his face had only seemed to grow. "How…Fucking…Dare you" He growled, this time looking me dead in the eyes, causing a chill to go up my spine. Something was wrong… Very wrong. I could just feel it.

"Jakob… What did I do?" I asked nervously as he began walking in my direction. Just as I had asked those words, everything from the previous night came back to me. The dancing, the wall of death… And the fight. Everything up-till the point where I heard what I thought was the blare of a horn and the screeching of brakes. I started to slowly back away from the one person whom I considered to be my best friend. I was never one to shy away from a fight, even if it was with Jakob. But something about him was different. I had never seen him as furious as he seemed to be right then and there.

"You know what you did. Don't play that game with me." Jakob growled, his pace increasing slightly as he made his way over to me. I could see the anger in his eyes. It was as though it had completely consumed him, taking over his every thought and corrupting him, turning him into a completely different person. I had never seen a Jakob like this before, and I wanted the old one back.

"Listen I- I know you're angry, but I honestly have no ide-" I began, but was completely cut off as I found myself unable to breathe.

Jakob's hand wrapped tightly around my neck, almost entirely constricting my breathing. He ran over and grabbed me so fast that I couldn't even see him move. I began frantically searching my mind for an answer as to how to get out of this situation. He slowly lifted me up off of the ground which seemed to be little to no effort on his part and pulled me close to him, yet again glaring straight into my eyes, as though he was trying to stare into my soul. I now found myself completely incapable of breathing while I squirmed around pathetically, trying as hard as I could to break away from my friend's almost unbreakable grip.

Everything began to go black yet again, until he unexpectedly dropped me onto the soft meadow grass, causing me to breathe in deeply as well as cough loudly. Once I finally regained my composure I found myself lying on the ground, looking up to see Jakob staring at me.

"No… That's too easy… I want you to feel what I felt" He grunted, his eyes now bloodshot with rage. He lifted his leg up above my head in what looked like an attempt to use the heel of his shoe to crush my skull. I curled up preparing for the worst, but just as he brought his foot down full force, a loud voice broke through the peacefulness of the once silent meadow.

"**STOP!"** It yelled in an indescribably loud as well as echoed voice, causing Jakob to fall to the ground and scream in pain. Followed by the inaudibly loud voice that sounded almost feminine, there was a bright flash of white light, and I felt as though I was dying again as I felt myself being lifted as all of the bright colors faded, giving way to blinding bright light.

Jakob

The voice wouldn't stop ringing in my ears, causing me to writhe around as I felt myself being taken far away from the meadow by some un-foreseen force. There was a bright flash, and the next thing I knew, I was laying on a solid marble floor. I had no clue as to where I was, how I got there, or for what reason I was there, and it was the first time that I had truly thought about it. The moment that I had seen Ashe, something took over me that I couldn't control. Whether I really did want to kill him or not, if I wouldn't have been teleported, there would be no if's and's or but's about it. He would be dead.

I sighed, closing my eyes and softly letting my head rest on the cool, tiled floor. It was good to return back to normal and start thinking rationally again. I wasn't usually the kind of person to act on impulse, but when I did, I either ended up hurting myself, or someone else that I cared for. But I didn't understand what happened. I mean sure I wanted to hurt Ashe… But back at the meadow, I acted as if I literally wanted to end his life. Something I could never picture myself doing no matter how furious I was at him. I knew that what he did to me was almost un-forgivable. And whether I ever found myself letting it go or not, he was still the only friend I had, and I couldn't ever end his life. It just simply wasn't possible.

After thinking about what I had done, I opened my eyes and looked over to my side to see Ashe lying down on his back, blinking furiously, trying to regain his composure. I laughed a bit, causing him to raise an eyebrow at me, confused at my sudden mood change. I sure as hell wasn't happy, but I would let him live… For now. One way or another, I had to get back at him somehow.

I stood up and glanced around, finding that we were in what looked somewhat like a throne room. I was never really into medieval history, but I had definitely seen enough Lord of The Rings to know what a throne room looked like. It looked almost like a very long corridor in a way. Expertly crafted windows lined each side of the room, allowing the sun to shed a bit of light into it. Each window was beautifully designed with an insurmountable array of designs and colors that seemed to tell a different story every time I looked at another one. There must have been at least one hundred of them covering the sides of the large room, and not a single one looked to be the same. I had never seen anything quite so beautiful or artistic on all my days that I had spent on earth. Each frame of glass left me speechless, stunned at the intricate details that seemed to be put into each and every one of them.

I saw that there were two very large, wooden doors at the end of the corridor, and found that there were banners in between each of the windows, all the way down one side, the banners were blue and depicted a moon. All down the right, they were red and had a picture of a very well colored sun on them. Both of the symbols looked un-believably familiar. I knew for a fact that I had seen them somewhere before. And as soon as I turned around, I knew exactly where I had seen them.

At this point… I had reached the point where I couldn't be told that what I was seeing was real. I knew that it had to be a dream. What I was looking at didn't exist, it never did exist, and it never could exist within the boundaries of space and time. I pinched myself to make sure that I was dreaming, only to yelp a bit and find that I felt all of it. I still couldn't accept that what I was seeing was real. I began to search my mind, trying to find out how I could be hallucinating or if I was drunk again, but no matter how much I thought about it, no matter how much I told myself that what I was looking at was nothing but a lie, a mere shadow, a figment of my imagination, there was no other explanation. What I saw was real… My lips began to quiver and I felt a bead of sweat began to run down my neck as I looked up at her… Her perfect white coat, her glorious wings tucked so perfectly into her quaint fur, her hypnotizing violet eyes catching the gleam of the sunlight that flooded through the windows, which only seemed to make them more entrancing. Her beautiful, multicolored mane that seemed to sway back forth, only emphasizing the divinity of her being. Although an angry expression covered her face, she still somehow managed to look calm and at peace. As every trace of doubt finally began to leave my mind, I looked once more upon the sun goddess herself, the ruler of the world that I no doubt currently inhabited, the beautiful, godlike Princess Celestia herself.

"You…You can't be…" I began

"Real? Well I assure you, I am all but a figment of your imagination" The sun goddess finished for me, spreading her wings as she looked me straight in the eyes, only pushing all doubt further out of my mind.

"But how? How is this even possible?" I asked, more to myself than anyone else in the room. "Are we in E-Equestria?" I stammered, unable to blink for fear that what I was seeing would simply vanish into thin air. Even if this was real, nothing seemed to make any sense. I remembered dying that night. I remembered the fight, and getting hit by the car. If I was dead… What was I doing here? Was I dreaming? Was I in a coma? All the different possibilities and explanations still didn't quite add up. If it was a dream, I wouldn't have felt pain when I pinched myself… And I never could think this clearly during a dream.

"Yes. And I think I should be asking you the same thing. What are you doing here?"

"I- I don't know" I stuttered, unable to form the words necessary for creating a simple sentence. This was unreal, and I couldn't help for being at a loss for words. " I remember… Dying… I remember both of us dying… So how did we end up here?" I glanced towards the ground, blinking rapidly, still unable to believe what I was seeing.

"What do you mean dying? Where are you from? **ANSWER ME!" **Celestia commanded, switching to the royal Canterlot voice, shaking the very foundations of the castle itself. I hadn't ever heard anything so loud in my entire life; I cringed as the voice rang in my ears yet again.

"E-Excuse me your H-Highness…" Ashe began, Celestia's soul piercing glare switching from me and over to my friend who was practically cowering below the majestic goddess. "My friend is just very confused at the moment, as am I. Please forgive us for being so rash as to intrude into your world, and believe me when I say we have the utmost respect for you and the land you rule over, but I must be honest and say that we know as much as you do. All that I can tell you is that we are called humans, and our home was a planet called earth. We started fighting for a reason that I cannot explain and wound up getting hit by a car… I mean a very large carriage. And that is all that we can tell you. We are very sorry for engaging in a fight in your meadow. We are both very frightened and are not sure what to do your Maj-" Ashe attempted to finish, only to be interrupted by Celestia.

"**SILENCE!"** She yelled, causing Ashe to shut his eyes as though he were awaiting death itself. "I have heard enough… I know all about your so called race… Humans… The very name itself disgusts me. All they are is selfish and greedy pigs that will do whatever they can only to benefit themselves. I do not know what they teach you back on "earth", but here, everypony cares for one another. Looks out for one another. And I refuse to have you come along and destroy everything we have strived so hard to create." The sun goddess finished.

"W-W-Wait… How do you know about humans?" Ashe asked, clearly just as shocked as I was.

"Yes. And I know enough about how you are to know that your kind is not to be trusted… Now what were you two doing fighting?" She snapped, what sounded like anger beginning to rise in her voice, causing me to remember what my best friend had done to me.

"He betrayed me. Back where I was from before I somehow managed to end up here… I was happy. Ashe here was my best friend, and I was in love with a girl back home as well. Her name was Krystal" I mumbled, the name that had once been music to my ears now tasted like vinegar coming out of my mouth. I had accepted the fact that what was happening was real. Everything was real… Equestria… Princess Celestia… Everything.

"My friend here decided to take it upon myself to try and take her away from me and succeeded." I spat, completely ignoring that I was in the presence of a princess. I still couldn't believe what was happening, but even the ruler of Equestria herself couldn't stop me from hating Ashe for what he had done.

"That is no excuse to attempt to fight him. Especially in a place as peaceful as this. I understand that what you were feeling may have been hard to control, but you mustn't let your anger get to you in such a way" She said, straightening herself up as the sharp tone in her voice faded away replaced by one slightly more sympathetic to the situation I had found myself in.

"If you expect me to accept you, you must never display anger as you did in the meadow ever again. Do you understand me?" She asked, yet again making eye contact with me.

"Yes your Majesty. My sincerest apologies. I don't know what came over me… I promise to control myself next time" I sighed sadly. I just wanted to go home. I wanted to see my god mother and my dog again. I wanted to drive again. Hell, I even wanted to see Krystal again, even if that just meant poking a hole in a condo, screwing her, and getting her pregnant. I was sure that whatever was going on here was very serious. And for all I had known, I may have never gotten to see earth again.

"So what are your names?" Celestia asked, snapping me out of my thoughts

"I'm Jakob, and this is Ashe your highness" I bowed, remembering proper educate when it came to dealing with royalty. A guy like me could learn a lot from simply watching movies.

"Thank you for your kindness but there is no need to treat me in such a way Jakob" Princess Celestia laughed, causing me and my friend to let out a sigh of relief to her sudden change of heart. "You may speak to me as if I was your friend. Although I do not necessarily approve of the customs of your race, you two seem much more courteous… And I trust that you will not have another outburst again" She said softly, smiling warmly in my direction.

"Of course not your High- I mean… princess" I laughed nervously as I corrected myself, eager not to upset Celestia for a second time over something as silly as addressing her in a certain manner.

"Although I think that you two seem very sincere, I must speak with my sister. We rule together, so I believe she has a say in how we deal with you" Celestia said, standing upright as her smile faded a bit, replaced by a more serious expression. Everything about her was so perfect, but what really seemed to catch my gaze, were her dazzling eyes, and her at peace expression.

"Umm… You mean Princess Luna?" Ashe asked quietly, causing me to turn around and glare at him furiously.

"What was that?" She asked, confused due to the low level of his voice.

"Oh… uh, what he said princess… Well he was just asking what your name was." I stammered, trying my hardest to cover up Ashe's slip up. I wasn't sure whether Celestia knew about the show or not. Nonetheless that we had a clue that this world existed, and using my head for once, I decided it to be best that she didn't know about it.

"Oh… Well you may address me as Princess Celestia" She said warmly, before turning around and making her way out of the room.

Once the large doors had closed behind her, I looked over towards my friend with a frustrated look covering my face.

"Are you really that fucking stupid Ashe?"

"What are you talking about? You're the one who tried to fight me for no reason!" He yelled, standing up as though he as readying himself for another assault.

"Why would you ask about Luna? Did you not stop and think for a minute about how strange it might seem to her that we not only just appear in Equestria with as many questions as her, but that we know practically everything about this place? I don't know about you, but I know that if somebody just came into my life and knew everything about me from some TV show that I never knew existed, I'd be a tad creeped out. Wouldn't you?"

"Oh… Oops, my bad" Ashe laughed nervously, finally realizing how badly he had slipped up.

"I understand that you're probably freaking out as much as I am right now… But we have to try and keep level headed, and stay rational. It's the little screw ups that'll get us thrown in the dungeon. Oh and one more thing" I began, taking a step toward him "Do you even remember the girl that you were kissing the other night" I asked, Ashe staring at me with a look of confusion filling his eyes.

"Well yeah. I mean… Sort of I guess"

"How much do you remember? And you better pray to god that you can convince me, otherwise, the princess may just wind up getting a human skin rug for hearth's warming eve." I threatened, still trying to contain the rage that had so easily enveloped every clear thought that ran through my head.

"Woah! Hang on dude!" He yelled as I took another step toward him. "All I remember is that she was blonde… I'm pretty sure she was around my age… Um… Oh! And she was really short. But that's all that I can remember about her"

"I hope for your sake that you are telling me the truth" I started as I heard hoofsteps from outside the massive doors. "This conversation isn't over" I whispered in his ear while the two Alicorns made their way towards us.

I looked in their direction, and couldn't help but smile as I laid my eyes on the mysterious ruler of the night, Princess Luna herself. Ashe had always been sort of obsessed with Celestia… Well, more Molestia than Celestia, but I was always more intrigued by Luna. Just her simple love for the night as well as the ability to watch over everyponies dreams fascinated me. I guess it was simply the fact that the first time she came to Ponyville, every single pony seemed to tremble with fear. Although I had never spoken of it before, I longed for a power like that. To stand before every single person that had ever done me wrong… Every single enemy that I had… Anyone who had ever judged me… And to see fear in their eyes as they trembled before me, the mere sight of me standing over them enough to bring them down to their knees in a form of submission. Back on earth I often had dreams that most people would consider nightmares. Filled with blood, hatred, rage, fear, and every other thing that could send someone's natural instinct into a state of panic… And I loved every minute of it. Sometimes I would literally just find myself slaughtering everything in sight, everyone that I could find. It didn't matter what I used… A knife, a gun, even my bare hands. I would rip every fucking thing that made the fatal mistake of getting in my way to pieces. I could kill everything, and I did… Even those I held the closest to my heart. The power that I felt run through me was simply indescribable, and it would drive me into a state of the utmost bloodlust. The only way that I could get through it, was to feed the monster inside of me, and I did. And I loved every single minute of it. I would kill and kill until I found myself drenched in blood and sweat of those who I had never even met. And not once did I ever feel a single shred of guilt, regret, or remorse. Just rage… And once I was finally done, and the horrific beast that I had struggled so hard to keep dormant had been sated, I calmed down, only to sink to my knees in terror at the scene that lay before me. Blood… Bodies everywhere… Everything destroyed… And the fact that I was capable of such untold amounts of destruction… The thought of myself becoming such a monster… Was enough to send me to the ground, wailing in misery at the sight of what seemed so real. I would wake almost immediately after that sick to my stomach, and would curse myself for enjoying something so Chaotic whilst holding my pillow as tight as I could. It had been the same almost every night. I had been having that same dream for weeks… Although it was so horrible, so disgusting, so disturbing, so bloody… I couldn't help but find it… so beautiful…

"Jakob?" Ashe nudged me, waking me from my day dream. "It's your turn" He motioned for me to stand. I stood up to find that Luna was standing directly in front of me. A look that seemed to be a mixture of hostility and confusion seemed to well in her large eyes, which I once again found myself completely lost in as she drew closer to me and began to look me over, inspecting every inch of my burly human frame, obviously intrigued by what she was seeing. I always felt a bit awkward when people would stare at me in public, but I felt as though she was almost raping me by simply looking me in the eyes. She leaned in close to me and sniffed the right side of my neck, sending a small chill up my spine.

"Alright, do you want me to sense him as well sister?" Luna asked, looking over toward Celestia, who replied with a calm nod.

The Princess of the night once again turned around to face me. She solemnly closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Her horn encompassed itself in a dark blue aura while she re-opened her eyes and they connected with mine. For a few moments, all was quiet, but then, I felt something force its way inside of my head. It was as though someone was trying to dig their way through my brain with a knife. The pain was almost unbearable. I sank to my knees and let out a gut wrenching scream, the pain spiraling through my body in waves. It would simply disappear for a few seconds at a time, causing me to open my eyes out of curiosity, only to be sent back to the ground as another wave of pain rippled through me, sending me straight back to the ground. I tried to scream for help, for anyone who could possibly hear it. I didn't even care that no one would; I just needed a way to let out the pain. But as I went to scream, I found that it was impossible. It was like someone had complete control over every bodily function that I had taken for granted.

I rolled over onto my back and opened my eyes, unable to make out anything other than extremely blurry light as the excruciating pain hit me for the eighth time. At this point, I wished that I could just die. The pain was too intense. I had never felt anything like this before, and I would have done anything for it to end. Every thought faded from my mind, almost as if it was taken from me. My mind went bland for about a minute as the pain began to finally die down. Then, just as soon as it had begun, it was over.

I sat up, breathing heavily, and started to feel myself over, making sure that all of my body was still intact after the insane amount of pain that I had just been put through. I looked above me to see Princess Luan, a somewhat sedated look covering her once stern face, and I muttered the only words that my now full mind could muster up.

"W-Why" I choked out, all of the memories of what had just occurred flooding back into my mind.

"I do sincerely apologize for the pain Jakob. But I had to search through your mind to make sure that you were not corrupted by the evil that lies within all of us. We had to make sure that it would be safe to let you and your friend roam freely about Equestria." Luna said, in a bit more of an apologetic tone.

"Wait… Roam around Equestria? What are you talking about Princess?" Ashe asked, clearly as confused as I was on the matter.

Luna yet again turned around, her gaze meeting Celestia, who smiled and nodded her head in return. I couldn't help but feel that something strange was about to happen… Something that would change my life forever. They both turned to face us, still smiling warmly.

"Alright" Luna began "We have decided to let you stay here, but under constant vigilance. There will be somepony watching you at all times, no matter what you are doing. Now keep in mind, we are not doing this simply because we trust you to a certain degree, this is going to be more of an experiment to see if our two races can coexist peacefully. Now, if you decide to act ever so barbaric, and make the mistake of fighting again, we have a spot in the dungeon just for you"

"Wait… What are you saying Princess?" I asked, still confused due to leaving out the point that she was trying to make.

"What she is saying" Celestia answered, trying to clear the whole situation up for my friend and I "Is that we are going to let you stay in Equestria. I think Ponyville would be a very suitable place for you two, seeing as how most of the ponies there are very accepting. But as my sister said, one little mistake, and you will both be held in the Canterlot dungeon"

"P-Ponyville?" Ashe stuttered, a smile starting to form on his once confused face.

I couldn't believe our luck. Of all the things that they could have done to us; killed us, sent us to the moon, kept us in the dungeon, or sent us to any one of the eight other towns around Equestria, we were lucky enough to end up in the beautiful, serene Ponyville. I was already ok with the sounds of cities, but I think I would have lost my mind in Manehattan. Plus, everypony that Ashe and I had ever heard of, lived there.

"Yes, Ponyville. I think that you will come to like it after a little while. It is more of a village than anything else, and all of the Ponies there are extremely kind. I'm sure that it will suit your needs." Celestia stated, telling me everything that I already knew.

"But remember, you two may stay there for the time being. Until we can figure out why you are here, and how we can send you back to your home planet. However; if you are going to eat, drink, or pay for a place to stay, you both will need to spend wisely. But in the meantime, we will lend each of you 500 bits to keep you sustained for a while." Luna said as a violet aura formed around her horn and she used her magic to levitate what looked like two coin purses over to my friend and I. I stared into the bag, unable to believe my eyes. Inside were what looked to be a very large amount of golden coins, each one shimmering as the light that flooded through the windows would hit them.

"Wow! Thank you for being so generous princess!" I exclaimed, surprised at the amount of hospitality that we were receiving. Taking in mind that we were two complete strangers, I couldn't believe our luck at the moment. "Are you sure that you don't mind?"

"Oh it's no trouble at all." Luna laughed. I could imagine why she was laughing; I must have looked like a ten year old on Christmas morning when she gave the bits to me.

"Oh and one more thing, would either of you be interested in flying or magic?" Celestia asked with a warm smile.

Flying… I had always dreamed about that sort of thing. I would always consider myself somewhat of a speed junkie. I loved to go fast. Whether it was on foot, in a car, or in a plane, I loved to go fast. The thought of being able to fly just like a Pegasus sent chills of excitement down my spine. I didn't want to be rude and take advantage of her hospitality… But I couldn't help myself.

"Flying is definitely something that I have dreamt of for a long time princess" I admitted, smiling as her gaze met mine. The next thing that I knew, I felt myself being covered in the same aura that had surrounded her horn as she lifted me up into the air, my eyes going wide with anticipation.

"Close your eyes" She cooed as a mother would to her newborn child. I obeyed her command, and a few moments later, I felt my feet touch the ground, and I re-opened my eyes. I didn't feel any different at first. I just felt like regular, old me. I looked over to Ashe to see that there was a look of disbelief sprawled across his face. I tuned my head slightly, looking behind me, and what I saw almost caused me to faint…Wings.

I now had two beautiful, large, black wings. I laughed merrily as I looked them over, in complete awe of what I was seeing attached to my body. They were so light that I couldn't even notice them on my back. They looked almost like what I pictured an angel's wings would be like, sturdy, but layered with black, smooth feathers. I touched my left wing, slowly grazing my hand down the outer curve of it. To my surprise, it moved. I tried to move it again, this time without touching it, and succeeded. I couldn't believe how easy they were to control. It felt more like a third and fourth arm than a pair of wings. Amazingly, I found that I could even fold them in, and conceal them inside of my shirt. It was like nothing that I could have ever imagined.

"Thank you so much… I can't even begin to describe…" I started, but was distracted by the beautiful sleek wings that were now so perfectly attached to my body.

"Don't mention it. And what about you? Magic or wings?" Celestia asked, looking in Ashe's direction, his eyes filling with excitement as the word "magic" escaped her lips.

Back on earth, Ashe was always kind of a World of Warcraft kind of guy. He even loved Harry Potter, which I myself always considered a bit silly, and he was always obsessed with magic. He had often talked about how amazing it would be to get to use it. The things he would do with it, how he would help other people if he had it instead of just thinking about himself. I couldn't help but be glad that he finally got his chance to test it out.

"Magic please" He replied, smiling. He was then enveloped in the same aura as me while his body was being lifted up in the air, his excited expression never fading for even a second. He finally floated down to the ground, and almost immediately, I noticed that something was very different.

"Ashe! Your eyes!" I gasped

"What about them?" He asked excitedly.

"Maybe you should let me explain this Jakob" Celestia began. "OK now Ashe, I have just given you the ability to summon and exhume magic. There are two holes in your hand that will always glow a bright white light whenever you are going to expel magic, I did that because I thought you may look a bit silly with a horn. Also as an added effect, your eyes will change color due to how you are feeling as well as what kind of magic that you will be using, because they usually go hand in hand. I'm not sure which colors go for which feeling but I think you will figure them out as you go along. Now remember, this is not like having wings. If you use your magic in the wrong way, you could really hurt somepony. But my sister seems to think that you have a very kind soul, and I trust her. Therefore; I trust you" As she finished, Luna walked toward us and opened her mouth to speak.

"Now those five hundred bits will only hold you over for a month or so if you think about your expenses. You will both need a room at one of the local inns, food, water, as well as clothes. Because it seems like all you have is one pair."

That was the first time I looked down to notice that I was still wearing my Chelsea grin shirt and the gym shorts that I had worn to the concert.

"But for now, you two will need to wear these" Celestia said as she levitated two dark cloaks toward us. "We aren't sure if the ponies are quite ready to see two humans yet. Tomorrow after you two get settled in, my sister and I will travel to Ponyville and make a public announcement, alerting everypony of your existence. They will have to find out sooner or later, and we would prefer sooner than later, as I assume you would. Is there anything else you need to know before we send you on your way?"

"Yes mam, what do we do after we run out of bits?" Ashe asked

"Oh of course, you two will both need to get jobs to help support yourselves." Luna answered before her sister even had a chance to speak.

"What kind of jobs?"

"Well there are plenty of jobs that need filling. Every single pony has a job that contributes to the well-being of the community as a whole. For instance; there are apple buckers, rock farmers, bakers, royal guards, fashion designers, there are plenty of jobs that you could apply for. Some are more difficult than others, some pay more than others, but they are all equally important. Anything else you would like to know? Luna asked

No matter how hard I thought about it, all of this still didn't make any sense to me. We died, and somehow wound up in a world that only exists in a children's TV show for no apparent reason whatsoever, and now we were being accepted into it as though we ourselves were ponies. Whether it was the harsh mentality that had been placed in my mind back on earth that some people just were not accepting, I didn't know. All I knew was that I had to find a way back to earth… I had to.

"I think we are ready" I replied as I looked over to Ashe, who nodded his head in agreement.

No sooner had I said yes than I found myself yet again floating in the air. I closed my eyes and braced myself for what I knew was bound to happen.

"God I hate teleporting" I spat to myself as I found that my world was again enveloped in a white shroud that seemed as though it would never disappear.

**Ashe**

I opened my eyes and let out a small squeal of delight. We were standing in the very center of Ponyville itself! This was like a dream come true to me. I had always wanted more than anything else in the world to live in Equestria, more so in the serene Ponyville. I loved everything about it. The kind and generous ponies, the beautiful colors, and the air seemed to be so much purer there than when I was back on earth.

I smiled as I looked over towards Jakob, who shook his head violently, still dazed from the unexpected teleportation.

"Still not used to that yet huh?" I laughed at my friend who looked towards me. But due to the fact that it was night time and we were both wearing cloaks, I couldn't tell what expression he was making. I assumed he was glaring.

"Shutup, let's get inside" He growled as we made our way inside one of the many inns that lay beside the central town square.

Once we had paid the Innkeeper 10 bits, we trudged up the stairs to our small but cozy room. I was pretty surprised that he just let us go without any further questioning, after all, we were walking around on two feet. Not exactly the most common thing in Equestria.

"I think I'm gonna like it here" I sighed to myself as I laid back on my small bed and fell into a deep, calm sleep.

_**Well guys looks like they made it! Sorry if the ending seemed a bit rushed but I promised you all that I would have an update before Christmas for you all and I did it! Consider it a Christmas/Hanukah/Cuanza/Whatever the hell you celebrate present from your old pals Ashe and Jakob**_

_**As always, don't forget to review! And please, if you enjoy the story so far, don't forget to follow and favorite, it only gets better from here on out!**_

_**-Jake**_


	5. My Betrayal

_**Well Chapter five is finally up! Here you go! Sorry if it took too long, but with Christmas and everything I've had barely any time to work on this. **_

_**Also, I've been approached by a web site that has asked me to publish Our World on their wall! I'm not sure why, but I guess one of you mentioned it to the moderators of the web site or something like that. The site is called , be sure to check them out! Here's chapter Five! **_

_**-Jake**_

Ashe

_I couldn't help but let my mouth hang agape due to the sight of him. I had seen Jakob practice his formations before, but I had no clue how he had managed to perfect it so quickly. I mean, he had never touched a sword in his entire life back at home! And somehow he had managed to earn every single form that the captain could muster up for him to attempt._

_It was an unbelievable sight. The way his body seemed to almost flow from the standard defensive position to the upright attack form, the hilt of his sword arced towards the sky while the blade pointed straight towards what would be an enemy's heart if any were in front of him. The professional look on my friend's face had me somewhat surprised as well. Taking into consideration how much he had been stressing about his final test, the fact that he not only retained a perfect form with every transition, but that his face was not only calm, but was also practically blank._

_As Jakob switched to a lower position in a demonstration of how he would defend himself if someone were to try and swipe at his legs, I noticed something. It looked almost as though he and his sword were one. The way it seemed to flow perfectly with every flick of his wrist, every transition, it looked more like an extension of his arm than a piece of sharp steel. I watched in awe as he continued to spin his sword around, showing off all that he had learned in his very short 2 weeks of training… And I began to feel a bit uneasy. As Jakob worked harder and harder, flowing with the delicacy of a dancer as well as the speedy aggression of a warrior, the fire ruby in the hilt of his sword began to glow a blood red... I knew gems would light up sometimes, but what really set me on edge was the gleam of red that I saw beginning to form in his eyes._

"Ow… What happened last night" I chuckled in spite of myself as I sat up in the comically tiny bed. "Oh, I almost forgot" I mumbled as I looked around the equally small room_, _remembering where I was. It wasn't every day that you just woke up in Equestria, and I was sure that it would take some time to get used to.

I stretched my arms out before sliding off of my bed with a loud yawn. Yesterday was rough, and I had really needed the sleep. I still wasn't exactly sure how I felt about being in Equestria, even though at first I had felt overjoyed at the thought of it. I had been bullied and messed with a lot back at home, but I missed my mom more than anything else. When I would think about moving away from my mother, I would think about how no one had any control over me, how I could make my own decisions, and buy a house of my own. All of that sounded amazing at the time, but it wasn't until I had reached the all too familiar land that I realized how bad I just wanted to see her again.

"I think after the whole announcement thing I should probably go get some clothes from Rarity, if she even know how to make clothes for humans" I groaned. Today would be just like high school all over again, nobody would know me, and everybody would judge me. I couldn't help but be a bit nervous… Being in front of all those Ponies and having to introduce myself was going to suck, and I sure as hell didn't look forward to it.

"And how are we this morning faggot?" I laughed as I caught sight of Jakob staring out of the solitary window in the room, his head propped lazily up on his elbow. Even after my little jab at him, he continued to just look sadly out the window into the meadow that lay ahead. I could tell when he was deep in thought, and it was pretty clear that he was trying to wrap his head around something at the moment.

"Dude come on! I'm hungry; let's go get something to eat!" I chuckled, ruffling his hair playfully. His eyes darted towards me for a moment and he just looked at me. I had expected a glare or a growl or something else to display his agitation toward me, but instead he just looked away and continued to stare out of the glass pane. Everything was quiet for about a minute until finally he spoke.

"I'm just letting you know, just because I have to play nice with you, doesn't mean that I want to be your friend. You should count yourself lucky to be alive right now… Well excluding the fact that we both already died. All I have to say is this, and you better listen very carefully. If the Princess wouldn't have teleported us, I would have ripped your fucking throat out. What you did to me was unforgivable. Whatever we had before is over, and it's all your fault. After we get introduced to everyone… I mean everypony or whatever the hell it is you say… I'm going to go get another room, and I don't ever want you to talk to me ever again. Got that?" I couldn't help but wince at the sting of his words. I still didn't understand what Jakob's problem was, but I wasn't about to lose my best friend of six years over something that I may not have actually done.

"Ok you know what?" I began "The whole time we've been here, you've tried to kill me, and you've been a complete prick. I don't even know what the hell I did, and you're acting like I screwed your sister or something. So why don't you start by telling me what exactly I did to piss you off so much." I snapped, yet again finding myself becoming annoyed at his negative attitude. It was his fault that we died in the first place, and I wanted to know what gave him the right to contradict me after all that he had put me through.

"You already know Ashe, don't you dare lie about this…"

"I have absolutely no idea what I did man. And unless you tell me what I did, there's no way that I can ever be sorry"

"You disgust me" he spat, finally turning to face me "Both of you do. You can both go burn in hell together for all I care"

Jakob began to pace around the room, pulling at his hair and cursing silently to himself. Normally if he was in this bad of a mood, I wouldn't be dumb enough to mess with him, but I was sick of hi blaming me for something that I couldn't even remember happening. I wanted to know, right then and there. And if he wouldn't tell me, I'd just have to resort to more violent methods of finding me out.

"K-Krystal" He stammered, breaking my train of thought. I was sure that he missed her, but she had absolutely nothing to do with the conversation.

"What about her?" I asked, just as confused as when I arrived in the strange and magical land.

"You kissed her" Jakob admitted, closing his eyes and biting his lip in an obvious attempt to control his anger.

"What are you talking about? Jakob the last girl that I ever kissed was at that concert, and she looked nothing like her! I think you made a mistake man. I would never think about doing anything like that to you. What you two had was too perfect to ruin. Plus, the girl that I was kissing had blonde hair, she was short, she had perfect white skin, she wore a lot of eyeliner, and she had little freck-" I stopped as I had a complete flashback of my last night on earth. Then, just as quickly as I had forgotten the girls face, it came screeching back into my mind. I sank to my knees in utter horror as I thought about what I was now sure had really happened. How could I do something so horrible? Whether I was drunk or not, I should have paid more attention.

I shook my head in complete self-disgust. My best friend had trusted me. He had put all of his faith in me. And I had betrayed him by stealing the most important thing that had ever existed in his life away from him. As much as I fought it and tried to tell myself that I could never do something so terrible, the truth remained. I had kissed Krystal. And now I had to face the consequences that followed, one of which probably being losing Jakob.

"Jakob… I don't know what to… say" I began to tear up a bit, my voice shaking slightly as I continued to speak "I was drunk… I couldn't tell it was her. I promise man if there is anything in this world that I could ever possible do to make it up to you and I'll do it. I'm not going to make any excuses for what I did. It was horrible and I completely regret it, but please you have to forgive me! Just… Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. I promise! Here, do you want my money? Do you want my clothes? Look just tell me what you want! I will give you anything, just please god please forgive me!" I yelled, looking up at him with pleading eyes as tears flowed freely down my face.

I was so appalled with myself for what I had done that I had nothing left to say. I just sat there, sobbing pathetically to myself for what seemed like hours, but I'm sure were only minutes. The fact that Jakob had taken me into his life, and done everything he could to please me. Everything he could to make my day just a little bit better and I had completely betrayed his trust as well as everything our friendship stood for, and now it was all over. Even with my pitiful begging, I knew that there was no way that he could ever forgive me for what I had done, and I deserved all of it. A week before, he would have gladly taken a bullet for me, but at that point, I think that he would have preferred putting one in me. And I would have completely deserved it.

For a minute or two, he just stood over me with an almost blank face, looking down on me while I cried. To be honest, I thought for sure that he would have killed me right there. Beat me to death with nothing but his bare hands. Hell, I wanted him to kill me. At least I wouldn't have to live with all the guilt. But he just stood there, taking in all that I had said. Once I had finally stopped crying, I looked up to see his expressionless face as he spoke.

"So you'd really do anything huh?" Jakob asked with a smirk as he tapped his foot slowly on the wooden floor "Anything at all?"

"Yes of course man! Look, just tell me what I can do to make it up to you and I will do it I swear!" I choked out, unable to cry due to the fact that I physically couldn't anymore, I had cried out all that I had left in me.

"You really wanna know?" He sighed while he made his way back over to his bed and much to my surprise, began to put on his cloak again.

"YES! PLEASE TELL ME!" I yelled, desperate to find out what I could do to save the friendsip that I had so stupidly ruined.

"You can let me leave this room, and never talk to me so long as you live" He spat coldly, and with that walked out the door.

I had lost a lot of things since I had died. My mom, my dogs, friends from school, but I knew right then and there that I had managed to lose the most important thing in my life without even dying. I had lost my best friend. And I was sure that there was no way of getting him back.

_**Is Jakob gone for good? Has Ashe completely destroyed their once perfect friendship beyond repair? What will happen to them? Tune in for the next chapter to find out! I know how you guys love those cliffhangers! Till next time!**_


	6. Love and Tolerance

_**Hey guys, Jakob here again! Bringing you chapter six! First off I would like to say thank you to all of you for your continued support and for all of the reviews and follows! **_

_**Also, one more thing before new kick this off, what would you guys like to see happen later in the story? It doesn't matter how silly it might seem, leave a review or PM me if you have any good ideas! I pretty much have the plot solidified, but I'm still taking requests! Anyway, onward to chapter six!**_

Jakob

"Wow, how perfect" I sighed as I looked out the window of the first story of the inn that I was currently residing in and noticed that it was raining, only adding to my misery. I thought talking t Ashe about what he had done would relief me of all of my pent up anger and frustration, but it only seemed to agitate me even more. What he had done was absolutely terrible, and even if I we did make up, I doubted that I would ever be able to completely forgive him. I leaned my head against the cool window, staring at the tiny drops of water that continued to run down the glass pane in an attempt to relax and cause my furious thoughts to subside.

"Anything I can get for you sir?" asked a very calm mare, almost causing me to jump out of my seat and fly through the roof. No matter how long I was here, I didn't think that I would ever be able to get used to Ponies walking around and talking so casually.

"Do you guys have anything Alcoholic here?" I asked, looking down at the table o she wouldn't be able to get a glance at my face. Most ponies sat up in chairs, so I didn't look all too suspicious.

"Yes sir we do, here, take a look at this" she offered, handing me a drink menu. I read it over and was surprised to find that things weren't as expensive as I had predicted.

**Drinks: Non-Alcoholic**

**Sweet Cider: 2 Bits**

**Butterfly Juice: 1 Bit**

**Soft Maple Beverage: 2 Bits**

**Water: 1 Bit**

**Filly and Foal Surprise (A soft iced mix of Cider and Butterfly juice): 4 Bits **

"Filly and Foal surprise? Are you serious" I chuckled to myself as I continued to scan over the menu.

**Drinks: Alcoholic**

**Apple Cider: 2 Bits**

**Red Grape Wine: 3 Bits**

**Maple Slammers: 2 Bits each**

**Everfree Sap: 4 Bits**

"So the apple cider did have alcohol in it! No wonder they love it so much… What will get me drunk the quickest?" I asked kindly, who was obviously taken back by forthright question. I was a very heavy drinker before I met Ashe, and I would have never guessed that he would be the reason I would pick it up again.

"Well… The maple slammers are probably the strongest drink we have here, but I don't thin-"

"I'll take twelve of those then" I grumbled, dropping 24 bits on the table in front of her.

"Sir, maybe you should just start with one… That would be enough…"

"For someone who didn't just lose their best friend, now will you please bring me twelve of those little slammers or whatever the hell they're called?"

"But Sir, you don't seem to understand! Nopony has ever ordered that many at one ti-"

"Look I'm paying you to give me a drink,, I already gave you the mon-…. I mean bits. So can you please just bring me the drinks?" I snapped, completely cutting her off. I didn't mean to be rude, but my mind was so clouded by anger that I couldn't even think straight, nonetheless have a civil conversation. All I wanted was to rip something to pieces. I could care less about who or what I was killing, but if I didn't get some of my rage out soon, I would have to resort to that just to keep myself from going insane.

"Alright" She sighed as she trotted sadly away to go and fetch me my drinks. As she continued to walk in the direction of the bar, I felt an unexpected sense of pity wash over me, sending all thoughts of anger and violence out of my mind. I knew what it was like to get treated like dirt. Hell, I myself had been a cashier at McDonalds back on earth for a while, and I could relate to how she was feeling. I had been yelled at so much by so many people while doing my job. Men, women, even kids younger than I was though that they had the right to treat me as though I was less important than they were. And even though I wanted to get angry, to let my rage completely consume me and kill everyone that even looked at me wrong, the humiliation was too horrible.

Knowing that I could get treated like garbage and I was still expected to do my job made me feel worthless, and after a while, I started to believe all the people that would get angry at me whenever they called me a "no life" or "someone that has no purpose". It was about that time that I started drinking and fell into a pretty deep depression. I was never one to talk about my feelings, and I never could respect anyone that whined about how terrible their lives were, but I did contemplate suicide for a long time. My whole life seemed worthless, even with Ashe. I just couldn't find a reason to keep on living… Until I met Krystal.

I cringed at the thought of her. She was the very last thing that I wanted to think about at the moment, and yet she still managed to make her way back into my head.

"Here are your drinks" The waitress said bluntly as she dropped a tray with what looked almost like twelve shots of fruit punch. As she went to walk away, something inside of me kicked and I couldn't ignore it.

"Wait!" I shouted, covering my mouth right after I had done so due to the large amount of ponies staring at me.

"Anything else you need sir?" She sighed, looking sadly at the ground.

"What's your name?" I asked. She looked so very familiar and I knew that I had seen her on the show before, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"My name is Roseluck sir"

"Roseluck… Go figure" I laughed, unable to believe that I didn't just look at her cutie mark "Hey, could you sit down for a minute?" I asked

"Um… Sure" She said, blinking rapidly with an expression of what looked to be confusion. She slid into the seat across me as I began to speak.

"Look, I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you earlier. I didn't mean to be so cruel to you, it's just that I've had a really rough day, I may have lost my best friend due to my own anger, and I don't want to hurt anyone else. I know that it may not seem like much coming from a complete stranger, but can you promise to remember what I'm about to tell you?"

"I promise sir" She said, relaxing a bit

"Well firstly you don't have to call me sir" I chuckled "Although I do love a woman with manners that really isn't necessary mam. I just want you to know that you are worth something"

"Wait… What do you mean?" She asked, confused again

"What I mean is exactly what I said. You are worth something. You are your own kind of pony, you are individual, you are beautiful, you are important, but most of all, you are you, and nothing will ever change that. I know what it's like to take a job like this, where no one respects you, yet they expect you to do everything they say, and I understand that it sucks. But no matter what, don't you dare ever listen to a word that they have to say unless it is positive or helps you. And one thing that you need to remember more than anything else…. If you didn't live in this world, things would be different. You are you, and you are important… Thank you for waking me up" I sighed as the last traces of anger were flushed from my mind replaced y ones of happiness and self-assurance.

I wasn't sure what exactly caused me to speak so freely in front of someone that I barely knew, but whatever it was, I was glad that it made me talk. I could tell from the look in her eyes how she was feeling the moment I first saw her, and I couldn't help but relate to her… I had to speak up.

"H-How did you know?" Rose stuttered, looking to be on the verge of tears.

"To be honest, I didn't. But sometimes an assumption can go a long way" I laughed "Thank you for reminding me why I'm here. I'm just like you believe it or not. After all we share the same doubts don't we?"

"I guess we do… But why would you go out of your way like that to talk to me… To make me, a complete stranger, feel better? Nopony has even said anything like that to me before… Why?" She asked, tears flowing freely from her eyes now as she smiled warmly.

"I have no idea. But I'm glad I did it. You look like you need a friend just as much as I do" I laughed as tears of happiness began to fill up my eyes as well. Even though I was happy, I refused to let myself cry… Real men never cry, especially not in a place as crowded as that. I was there to comfort her, not for her to comfort me.

"Well no matter what it was that made you decide to try and make me feel better I am forever grateful. You gave me a reason to see the purpose in my life, and for that I am happy. So what is your name?" She asked gleefully, no longer treating like a customer, but a very dear friend.

"My name is Jakob, yeah I'm sure that you've heard much better but I'm not from these parts so I don't exactly have an awesome name"

"Oh Jakob's not a bad name! I like it! So where are you from then?" She asked, completely throwing me off my train of thought. I had to think of somewhere fast. I couldn't just say my planet, because she would have no idea what I was talking about. Not to mention that fact that I was 99.99% positive that she had never seen or heard of a human before. I knew I had to think fast.

"Oh…Um… I'm from Manehattan!" I said a bit louder than I meant to.

"Wow! Manehattan! I've always wanted to see what it's like there! It can get really boring around Ponyville sometimes, but they say in the big city, noting ever slows down!"

"Yeah… It was pretty cool" I laughed awkwardly, wanting to change the subject.

"So you said you're new around here?"

"Yeah"

"Well how about after I get off work I show you around for a bit?" Rose suggested, her eyes filled with excitement. I had expected her to warm up to me after what I had said to her, but I didn't expect her to go out of her way and do something so nice for me.

"Yes Rose, I would love that. But I think I'm going to have to be in town square at some time around twelve or so, so why don't you just meet me there? The princess's need me to help with an announcement" I said, completely forgetting that after she saw how I really was, she would probably run away screaming and never look back.

"Oh wow, Princess Celestia and Luna are coming to Ponyville and you get to help them make an announcement? You're soooo lucky! I wish that I could meet them. Oh and twelve sounds great! So do you want me to take your drinks back _**sir?**_" She asked, winking at me, causing me to burst out laughing which yet again caught the attention of all the other ponies in the room.

"Yes please do that _**mam**_" I joked back

"Alright Jakob, here's your money" She giggled as she held it out to me. In response I merely stood up and shook my head.

"You keep the money, you've earned it Rose"

"Really? Now I have enough to pay rent! Oh thank you so much!" She yelled as she unexpectedly wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me into a tight hug. My first thought was to push her off and make a run for the door, but something was stopping me from doing that. Maybe it was because somewhere deep inside of me, even if wouldn't admit it, I liked it. I leaned down a bit and wrapped my arms around her in return.

To my surprise, I opened my eyes and found that she was casually standing on her hind legs as she put her weight on me. I noticed that while she was standing, her head was about level with the middle of my chest. Once she finally pulled away I sat back down.

"Alright, well I'll see you later Jakob!" Rose shouted as she trotted away to serve a very annoyed looking customer. I couldn't help but crack a small smile as I stood up to see her talking to the stallion at the other table, a bright smile sprawled across her face. She was practically emanating happiness.

"Bye rose" I yelled as I walked out the door. I had to fix things with Ashe; otherwise they would probably only get worse. I had to do the one thing that I hated more than anything else. I had to let go of my dignity and apologize for what I had done. Even if it was his fault, I had no right to just beat him down like that, and my run in with Roseluck had made me realize that.

"We're gonna fix this man, I promise" I said with a smile as I made my way upstairs, back to our room.

Ashe

I sank back in my bed in despair and wiped a stray tear from my eye. I didn't cry much, but this was definitely an acceptation.

"Jakob I didn't mean to… I'm so sorry… It's all my fault" I sighed, placing my head in my hands while I tried to regain all of my rational thoughts. At that moment I knew two things for sure. One, I had just lost my best friend, and two, that I completely deserved it. I never really had much of a love life back at home, and whenever Krystal walked up to me after the concert, I didn't even know what to think. I was so unbelievably desperate that I didn't even think about it. Hell, I was so drunk I didn't even think that it was her, but that still didn't make it right. No matter what way I looked at it, no matter what excuse I used to try and make it feel justified, I had still betrayed Jakob, and he deserved much better than that.

I stood up and began to pace around my room, desperately straining my mind to find the solution to my massive problem, even though deep down inside, I already knew what it was. The only way that I could every get Jakob to forgive me would be to leave him alone and let him mull over what I had done, and how he would deal with it. And the chances of him deciding to just let it go would be very slim. He was a great guy, but he could hold one hell of a grudge. As I continued to pace around, I heard the door creak open behind me, and in response, I spun around quickly for fear that it may be somepony that just wandered up to my room. I was distraught, but I was smart enough to know that the Princess didn't want us to me seen without out cloaks yet. When I turned around and finally realized what was in the doorway, I couldn't believe my eyes… He came back.

"Hey…" Jakob muttered awkwardly as he walked into the room and sat down on the bed. He motioned for me to come over and sit next to him, and deciding that what he had to say would most likely be important, I sat down next to him. He seemed to try and hide his face, but I could tell that he had been crying. Even though I was his best friend, he always tried to hide his true emotions from me as well as everyone else in his life. Mainly because of how harsh his father was with his stupid "no crying" rule.

"Look Ashe" He began with a heavy sigh "I know that you probably feel guilty enough already so I'm going to try and keep it short and not make you feel even worse. What you did… Was the most disgusting, terrible, and heart breaking thing that you could have ever done to me. The moment I saw you kissing Krystal, I wanted nothing more than to just rip your head off, I'm not gonna lie. Shit, when we got here, I almost tried to… But even though you did that to me… Even though I still hate you for what you did… I think I'm the one who should be apologizing"

As soon as he finished saying those words I had a mind overload. Jakob… One of the most self-assured as well as head strong kids that I knew was… Apologizing? It just wasn't in his nature. And the fact that I had kissed his girlfriend and he was now apologizing for his reaction reassured me that he wanted to fix our friendship as much as I did.

"Jakob… Dude this is all my fault you should-" I began

"I know" He interrupted, cutting off my apology "But just let me say I'm sorry ok? You hurt me, but that doesn't make it ok for me to do the same to you. I promise from here on out that I won't let anything ruin what we have, and once we get back to earth, I won't even say a single word to Krystal, I'll just act like it never happened"

"No, you need to break away from Krystal man, who knows, she may have already cheated on you once. I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just trying to be your friend and help you out. Please, when we get back, just end it with her" I begged. I knew that it was a bit hypocritical for me to ask him to break up with his girlfriend near their one year anniversary, but I was sure that she would pull something like that again.

"I'll think about it man… So are we straight?" Jakob asked with a smile, holding his hand out to me.

"No question about it bro" I laughed as I shook his hand happily, glad that we could finally put this whole thing with Krystal behind us.

"Hey um… I know that this is a big deal to you and everything, and it is to me as well, and as much as I don't wanna rush you or anything, you should probably put this on" He suggested me, throwing me my cloak that I had been looking around for.

"Wait, why do I need this?"

"The Princesses? They're coming to announce our arrival in Ponyville remember? Oh come on now don't tell me you forgot about that" He sighed, noticing the all too obvious expression of confusion sprawled across my face.

"Ohhh yeah, I remember now" I lied. To be honest, I couldn't remember half of the conversation between me and the Princesses; I was too overwhelmed by the fact that they even existed to pay much attention.

"Alright, well let's get going" Jakob said as he stood up and stretched. He walked over to the table and grabbed his cloak and slipped it on as well. "By the way guess who I ran into at the bar downstairs?"

"Wait, why were you talking to one of them? We aren't supposed to talk to anyone… I mean anypony yet are we?" I asked while I closed the door behind me.

"It's cool, I had my hood up and everything and she didn't even seem suspicious. She's going to show me around Ponyville after we are introduced. Well that is if she isn't too scared to even walk up to me"

"Hey don't worry about it; I'm sure she'll accept us. And so will all of the others" I said optimistically in an attempt to improve my friend's already soured mood.

"Yeah maybe you're right. Either way I'm still nervous as hell" He groaned as we walked out o the inn and into the main square of Ponyville.

As soon as Jakob saw the massive crowd that had already begun to gather around the mayor's house, he turned and tried to speed walk back into the inn, but it was to no avail. I had predicted he would try to make a run for it, so I grabbed his arm and refused to let go.

"Dude please! There's so many of them!" He whispered frantically as he tried to pull his arm away from my death grip. "Oh god please just kill me now" He groaned as we began to see what looked like a golden chariot pulled by two royal guards appear on the edge of the horizon.

At first it just looked like some regular old chariot pulling no one in particular, but as it began to draw closer and closer, I recognized the figures that rode in the back. It was Princess Luna and Celestia. All of the pony's began to cheer and applaud they're all too humble rulers, to which they would respond with an expectant smile or a hoof wave. Every single one of them seemed so happy to see they're leaders… And it was strange to me. Back at home, there was so much hate for leaders and generals and even presidents, but here, everyone was supportive, kind, and enthusiastic to do their part to make Equestria a better place. It astonished me that so much love and kindness could be gathered into one place all the time.

"Ashe let me go!" Jakob yelled, his outcry suppressed by the clamor of the large crowd. As the chariot drew closer, he started to struggle harder and harder, but finally gave up as it halted to a stop directly in front of us. Princess Celestia looked over and smiled at us.

"Hello Jakob, hello Ashe. I trust that you two have managed to stay out of trouble so far." She said in a very calm manner.

"So far so good Princess" I chuckled in return

"Very good. My sister and I will go up to the podium and announce that you are here, then you two will come up and drop your cloaks" She said, causing Jakob to shake even more to my hidden amusement.

"H-How do you think that they will react princess?" Jakob stuttered, barely able to retain his fear. He was never really good with big crowds.

"Who? Everypony here? To be honest I do not have an answer for that question. I highly doubt that any of them have ever heard of a human before, nonetheless seen one. I think that after a while they will all warm up to you, just don't be nervous"

"N-Nervous? Me? Of course not" Jakob stammered, struggling to let out a fake laugh to hide how afraid he truly was. "Should I show my wings or…"

"Yes you should. Now if that is all you two need to know, my sister and I will be heading to the podium now. Good luck you two!" She laughed as she and her sister walked up the wooden stairs that led to the small stage setup just for their arrival.

Jakob

I couldn't understand for the life of me how Ashe managed to stay so calm and retained while having to deal with the pressure of not slipping up in front of what could easily be around two hundred or so pony's that were most likely just as judgmental as the people back on earth. As the princesses began to make their way to the podium I looked down at the ground and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself before Ashe and I would have to walk up on stage in front of everypony.

"You can do this… stay calm" I muttered to myself as all was quiet and Celestia began to speak.

"Hello my subjects! How are you all today?" She asked with a smile, which was meant by a joyful uproar from the crowd as they all began to stomp their hooves in excitement, a smile plastered on every pony that had gathered to see their beloved Princess address them.

"My sister and I have an announcement to make" She began once the clamor had finally subsided. "We have two new guests in Ponyville… But they are not exactly what I think you all would expect"

"That's our cue, come on" Ashe urged as he grabbed me yet again and began to drag me up the stairs in the direction Princes Celestia and Luna were standing. They turned their heads in my direction; they both wore a very soft smile which only seemed to make me even more nervous. No matter how much I begged Ashe not to, he continued to take me up the stairs, and then finally, we stopped right in front of the stage.

"Alright, good luck" He laughed, causing me to release my grip for only a second out of confusion.

"What do you mea-" I began, but was cut short as he pushed me out on stage, almost sending me toppling to the ground in front of everypony. I cursed myself for not expecting him to pull something like that as I recovered myself from what could have been the most embarrassing moment of my life. I turned around to see Ashe offstage practically rolling around on the ground laughing.

"Jakob would you care to step up here so that I may introduce you properly?" Celestia half asked half commanded, causing me to tear my gaze away from my laughing friend and back onto the audience that all looked up at me with expectant eyes that seemed to judge every move I made.

"Y-Yes princess" I stuttered as I began the shaky walk up to where the podium was. As I continued to walk I started to hear a confused murmur arise from the crowd.

"_Why is he so tall?"_

"_Why is he walking on his hind legs?"_

"_Why is he wearing a hood?"_

"_Is he hiding something?"_

"Settle down now if you will" Luna commanded, addressing the audience, causing everything to go completely quiet which only seemed to add on to my fear. All I could hear at this point were my heart thumping rapidly in my ears, and the sound of the wooden floorboards creaking beneath me as I walked. Once I finally reached the podium the terrifying murmur of the crowd began to start back up again.

"_Why is he acting so strange?"_

"_Why is he shaking?_

"_Is something wrong?"_

"This is Jakob" Luna began, taking her sisters place in front of the podium. "He has come here from a distant place that he and his friend refer to as "earth". He does not know why he is here, and neither does his friend, whose name is Ashe" At the mention of his name, he walked forward and stood next to me facing the crowd.

"They are different from us in many ways physically, but they share our common interests. They are peace loving creatures who care for their own, just like we do"

Care for their own… Those words seemed to ring in my ears… If anything that's what humans don't do.

"So Jakob, if you would drop your cloak please" Luna motioned as Ashe pushed me further up stage so that everyone could get a good look at me.

I refused to open my eyes to see the crowd before me. I couldn't open my eyes, I'd lose it. My lips began to quiver as I struggle to form some sort of simple sentence to address the expectant crowd with. Unable to find anything to say, I finally gave up and decided to do what had to be done. I took a deep breath, attempting to muster up all of the courage that lay inside me; and I threw my cloak to the ground.

Seconds began to feel like minutes, and minutes like hours as I stood still on the stage in utter silence. I had expected a few screams of terror, but I had gotten something even worse. Everything went silent. I could practically feel the eyes of the onlookers burning into my skin which only peaked my nervous excitement more. I finally opened my eyes and almost immediately met the gaze of the all too familiar ponies, which in turn caused them to murmur amongst themselves yet again. They all looked just as confused as I was, but there was something else in their eyes as well. Once I realized what it was I sighed in relief, happy to find that it wasn't fear, but curiosity. I decided to spread my large black wings out to let everypony see them, which only caused more "ooo"'s and "ahhh"'s. As the murmur of the crowd began to grow louder and louder, instead of finding myself more afraid, I actually started to somewhat enjoy the attention.

"Now, would any of you like to ask him anything?" Princess Celestia asked in a very motherly voice, only calming me more.

"Oh! Me! Me! Me! Me!" Yelled an all too familiar pink pony from the crowd, to which the princess nodded her head, motioning for her to continue.

"OK! Umm, OH YEAH! What are you called?" Pinkie Pie asked whilst jumping up and down, barely able to retain the excitement that Ashe and I had brought to the usually quiet Ponyville.

"Humans, we are known as humans, and we come from a planet called earth, and I honestly have no idea how far away that is from here" I chuckled. Just as I had finished answering Pinkie Pie's question, the entire crowd exploded in a loud volley of questions and comments.

"_What's earth?"_

"_I really like his mane!"_

"_Are those wings?"_

"_Can he sleep with me?"_

In response to the last question I could understand I looked back towards Celestia with "help me" practically written across my face.

"Settle down, settle down" She laughed "You all may ask Ashe and Jakob as many questions as you please later, but for now we only have time for one more question. Now raise your hooves if you would like to ask Jakob or Ashe a question"

I had expected one or two ponies to raise their hooves in response, and my jaw almost hit the floor when I saw every single member of the audience raise their hooves excitedly. Luna looked over at me, motioning for me to pick the pony that would get to ask the final question.

As I looked over audience, I heard a large amount of "OOO ME!" and "PICK ME"'s, which only seemed to excite me more. I continued to gaze over the crowd until finally my eyes fell on another very familiar pony. As my gaze met hers I noticed that she stood with a sheet of paper and a quill, using her magic to hold both of them, she had most likely been taking notes on exactly how I was acting and my response to every question. I couldn't help but smile as I realized who she was. The princess's dearest student herself, Twilight Sparkle.

"You" I said pointing towards twilight, which was met by a large amount of "Aww"'s as well as other sounds of disappointment from the rest of the gathered ponies. I used my brains for once and decided not to call her by her name, scared that it may arouse some suspicion as to how I knew who she was. She smiled happily, as though she had almost expected me to pick on her.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle… Now let's see, where do I begin…" Twilight giggled. It was clear that she had some kind of trick up her sleeve. "Would you consider yourself fairly smart?" She asked, causing me to smile a bit. When it came to English, I knew most of the basic stuff and could pass all of my classes with ease. With math, I was practically a genius. I took AP (college) calculus during my sophomore year and passed with a very high A.

"Well yes Twilight I would consider myself fairly smart when it comes to things like math, maybe not so much English but yes, I am fairly smart" I replied with a smile, already knowing what she was about to do.

"Oh math huh? Well. In that case, five squared plus three, divided by two point seven, multiplied by fifty two which is equal to the variable of x after it is distributed to each side of the equation is equal to eight and a half, multiplied by seventy two, plus twenty five. What is X?" She asked as she lifted her head slightly in pride.

I had expected her to challenge me and I had to admit, I kind of respected her for it. Twilight was well known to be one of the most book smart ponies in all of Equestria, and the fact that I had intimidated her to the point in which she felt the need to challenge me somewhat boosted my confidence. As she continued to look around at all of the others who stared at her in awe and wonder, I set to work on the equation using nothing but my mind.

"Sorry Jakob" Twilight began after a few seconds of silence "But I guess that you're not as smart as I had expected. You seem like a very nice person overall, but you definitely can't compare to-"

"Fifty two" I said with a confident smirk, m=causing Twilight to open her eyes and look around in shock

"Wait… What are you talking abou-"

"X is equal to fifty two. I solve problems like that in my sleep Twilight. Go ahead and check if you don't believe me" I challenged as she continued to stare at me in disbelief.

A few moments after I had spoken, she levitated her quill up to the paper and began to furiously scribble down the work required to solve the problem. I saw her mumbling to herself the exact words that had run through my mind as I attempted to solve the semi-difficult problem.

"Wow… You actually got it… Right" She stuttered, unable to believe what she was seeing

"Well done Jakob! Most impressive!" Celestia said happily as Twilight continued to try and take in all that had just happened.

"Now, I'm sure that Jakob will be willing to answer any questions that you have later! Now carry on amongst yourselves, and we promise to visit Ponyville sometime soon!" Luna said, addressing the crowd as the two sisters made their way offstage and toward the chariot that had carried them to Ponyville. Within a minute or so, they were gone, leaving me and my friends onstage in front of the still massive crowd.

"Well…" Ashe laughed "How are we gonna get back to the inn?"

_**Hey guys! That's the end of chapter six. Sorry it took so long, but winter break really winded up taking away a lot of my writing time. Anyways, till next chapter!**_


	7. The Sword

_**Wow, so "Our World" is about to hit 1,000 views! And I don't think that it would be possible without all of you. I know I may not be the best writer in the world, but I damn well try my best to be. I think that by the time this is finished that I may be up to 1,000 views, I'm not sure. Anyways, enjoy the chapter you guys!**_

Ashe

"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" I mumbled in disbelief as the eyes of every single spectator that composed of what seemed to be all of Ponyville fell on my friend and I. Even Jakob himself looked nervous again.

I had expected for Celestia and Luna to leave quickly, but I didn't think that they would just leave us standing in front of the massive audience that had gathered in the center of the town. I looked over at Jakob to see that he appeared to be as confused as me.

"Well…Um" I stammered awkwardly in an attempt to address the quiet crowd of spectators "Me and Jakob are gonna… uh… Head back to our room" I looked over towards my friend, gesturing for him to help me out. He just looked back at me and laughed at how stupid I was sure that I looked. I shot him a quick glare before turning back to face the crowd.

"I guess I'll see you all around… Have a nice day… We're just gonna go now…" I began to slowly back away from the massive crowd of ponies and turned around to see that Jakob was already gone. I had expected everypony to run up and start asking me questions as soon as I stepped off of the stage, but to my surprise, as well as my relief, they all began to walk away and continue about their business as though nothing had ever happened.

I started to walk back to my inn and take a quick shower and a long nap, god knows that I needed it more than anything, it had been a very long and tiring morning, and I thought that I had earned it. As I pushed open the door to the very homely inn I heard an all too familiar voice from behind me speak.

"Umm… Mister?" The little filly asked, attempting to grab my attention. I turned around quickly, fairly startled at the voice that had appeared out of nowhere. As soon as I looked down to find where the voice had come from, my heart immediately melted at the adorable sight that lay before me.

"I was j-just wondering why your e-eyes went from blue to green?" Scootaloo stammered, dragging her hoof on the ground nervously as she spoke. I never cared to much for the Cutie Mark Crusader episodes, but she was definitely my favorite out of the three. She continued to look toward the ground as I searched my mind for the most logical answer that it could muster up.

"Well… I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with my emotions. Whenever I first stepped onto the stage, I was fairly calm, so I guess that's why my eyes were green. After the Princesses left they turned blue because I was nervous" I said to myself more than the little filly that stood below me.

"Oh wow, that's really cool!" She laughed, clearly starting to warm up a bit.

"So what's your name kid?" I asked, again deciding it best that she didn't find about the fact that I knew her from a cartoon.

"The one and only Scootaloo" She replied confidentially with an eager smile, jumping on her scooter excitedly. I paid attention to how she acted on the show, and I was sure that rainbow dash was the reason she was acting so prideful.

"Well it's nice to meet you Scootaloo, you can call me Ashe. I'd love to introduce you to my friend that was up on stage with me, but he ran off somewhere" I chuckled, crouching down to her level.

"Oh you mean the one with the wings? I think I saw him walk off with Roseluck a minute or two ago"

"With Roseluck? Oh yeah he told me he was gonna meet up with her" I yawned, stretching out my arms as I continued to speak "Well it was nice seeing you Scootaloo, but I'm pretty tired, so I'm probably gonna go lie down for a little bit"

"Alright, see ya later Ashe" She said as she hopped on her scooter, pulled back on the throttle, and zoomed off before I had the chance to compliment her scooter. It surprised me that the Ponies around here even knew how to make electric scooters, but usually resorted to just walking around or being pulled by a carriage.

I continued to make my way upstairs, unable to get my mind off of how silly the idea of a pony riding a scooter in the first place must seem to someone who had never seen the show. I couldn't help but be a bit surprised by my own reaction to everything that had happened. If I were back on earth and was told that I was going to wind up in Equestria after being run over by a car, I would probably freak out, but now that I was actually there, everything seemed almost casual.

"Well, almost everything" I laughed nervously to myself, finally realizing how many of the inn residents were staring at me. I was always one of those people who hated being stared at, but I refused to let myself get angry at all of the ponies for staring so intently. I mean at least I had seen them on the show before. None of them even knew what a human was!

"I wonder what Jakob's up to" I mumbled, stepping into the hilariously tiny shower to wash my hair.

"I just hope he's not getting into any trouble…."

Jakob

"Ok Jakob… Just try to stay out of trouble, and everything will be alright" I muttered, exhaling shakily as I made my way offstage, doing my very best to not make eye contact with anything other than the steps while I continued to walk.

I was very pleased with the fact that not every single Pony was scared of me, but I wasn't the kind of guy who enjoyed being in the spotlight 24/7. But considering that Ashe and I were probably the only human's in the entire universe, I was sure that I'd have to deal with that for a little while. As I continued to walk in the direction of where the inn was, desperate to find refuge from all of the eyes that were bearing down on me from all directions, I saw a shadow appear in front of me. I glanced upwards for a moment, hoping that it was just Ashe, but my heart sank as soon as I saw who it was.

"Roseluck… I…" I began, only to find myself unable to finish the sentence. She had a look of confusion and curiosity in her eyes as she very timidly began to circle around me, inspecting every inch of my human frame. I looked around to see that all of the other ponies had formed a circle around me as well, only making me more nervous. Even as I tried to talk to her, Rose ignored me and continued to look me over, messing with my hair, smelling me, and doing everything else she could to get more of an understanding for how my body worked. After looking me over from head to feet to wings, Rose trotted back in front of me and sat down calmly.

"Rose?" I asked, growing ever so suspicious

"Why didn't you just tell me?" She replied, looking more confused than anything else.

"Well what was I supposed to tell you?"

"Well you could have started with something along the lines of "I'm not a pony" She giggled, causing me to crack a smile. At least she wasn't afraid of me.

"Yeah I know. It's just that I wouldn't know how to explain everything that you would want to know, because I honestly have no clue why I'm here" I chuckled as I shrugged my shoulders.

"It's ok I get it." She said, standing back up on all fours as the crowd that had surrounded us began to slowly but surely dissipate. "So…. Do you still want me to show you around Ponyville?" She asked happily.

"Of course!" I laughed as she motioned for me to follow her.

I was so unbelievably glad that she had been able to accept me for what I was, and that she wasn't afraid of me. I knew that Celestia had told me that all of the ponies would be very accepting, but I had no clue that they would be this kind! I mean sure I would get dirty looks from some of the colts and stallions that went by, but overall most of the mares seemed to be very curious as well as kind. But even though everything seemed to be going right, I wouldn't let all of that distract me from my true goal. To find a way back home. I had no idea what I was doing in Equestria, and even though everything was great and it was amazing to get to meet my some of my favorite characters from the show, I knew that wasn't where Ashe and I belonged. We belonged at home, with our families, in high school. Or what was left of our families.

"So where do you want to go first" Rose asked eagerly, causing me to shake my head as I was brought back to reality.

"Oh… Um, well I'm getting a bit hungry, so why don't we stop somewhere and grab a bite to eat?" I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the food that they had around here, but I knew I was going to starve if I didn't get a bite of something eventually.

"That sounds good to me, there's a nice little restaurant only a couple of blocks from here that has the most amazing Daffodil sandwiches!" She said happily, causing my stomach to rumble at the thought of a nice tasty burger.

"Oh no…" I mumbled to myself as I came to the sudden realization that I wouldn't be able to eat meat anymore. I mean how was I supposed to explain to a bunch of herbivore ponies that I ate meat? If my wings or body didn't scare them, that sure as hell would have. What I would have given for just one more steak.

We continued to walk towards the restaurant in almost complete silence, other than the occasional gasp or whisper from somepony who had just seen me for the first time. Once we finally arrived to the dainty looking eating establishment, everypony seemed to just step out of our way, allowing us to enter.

"Hello sir, may I take you to your seat?" A male waiter asked from out of nowhere, almost causing me to jump straight out of my skin.

"Yes please" Rose answered for me, barely able to hold back her laughter after my all too obvious scare.

"Right this way" He said happily as he began to lead us to our table. As we followed the well-dressed pony, I looked around to see what the others were eating. All I saw were the same drinks that were at the bar, and these strange looking sandwiches that seemed to have nothing on them but a cluster of multi colored flowers and leaves. I cringed at the idea of having to eat a flower for lunch and continued to look around until I finally found something that gave me a slight sense of comfort.

"A salad" I sighed in relief as my stomach began to rumble. I had gone on a vegetarian streak for a couple of months back on Earth, and all I ate was pasta and salad. Not only because they were the only things that I could stand other than meat, but because I loved the taste of both of them.

"So what can I get you two?" The waiter asked while we slid into the comfortable barstool seats.

"Hmmm… I'll just have a Daffodil sandwich and a glass of water please" Rose answered, it was pretty clear from the way that she was squirming around that she was pfor robably as hungry as I was, if not more.

"And what about you sir?" He turned towards me

"Oh, I'll just have a salad and a glass of water"

"Alright, your food will be ready in a few minutes, you two have fun" He laughed, and with that, disappeared into the kitchen.

"Well that hopefully won't take too long" Rose sighed "So Jakob, what do you think of Ponyville so far?" She asked as I stretched my arms, trying to ignore how tired I was.

"Honestly, I really like it. Back on my world nothing was really as colorful as it is here. I really didn't think that anyone here would accept me for the way that I was, but I guess that I was wrong. Back on earth, the people there are very judgmental and very cruel. Almost everyone there doesn't really care for anyone other than themselves. It's a pretty horrible place, but its home, and I'm going to have to go back eventually. But yeah, this place seems very cool so far." I yawned, trying to change the subject so that the whole lunch conversation wouldn't be her just asking me questions.

"Wow… Well no offense but earth sounds like a strange place… OH WOW LOOK AT THAT!" Rose shouted, almost causing me to fall out of my seat as she pointed out the window, a look of excitement and awe sprawled across her face. I leaned over the table and covered my face from the almost unbearable sunlight let through by the glass in an attempt to see what Rose was so excited. Whenever I looked out, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, other than a crowd cheering for no apparent reason. It wasn't until I looked up that I realized what she was screaming about.

At first it just looked like a bright colorful blur, but then as I began to squint, straining my eyes to get more of an understanding as to what was going on, and then I recognized what it was. The bright multi-colored glow that seemed to follow whatever was circling repeatedly around a cloud only seemed to grow brighter and brighter as it went faster. After only about ten or fifteen seconds of circling the cloud, the unseen blur went dipped downwards and began zooming in the direction of the crowd, which only seemed to excite them more. Just before the mystery flyer hit the crowd, they pulled up and sped off in the direction of the cloud until they went straight through it, causing it to disappear entirely. At first I was gripped with a sense of excitement as I looked at the cloud dissipate into thin air. The almost unmatchable speed of whoever was flying was unlike anything that I had ever seen. Even some of the planes back at home couldn't go that fast, but then I began to think about what could do something like that… I ran through the names of everypony I knew but nothing was coming to mind.

"Come on! I wanna go see her!" Rose yelled before grabbing by arm and yanking me out of my seat, almost sending me face first into the ground. After my shaky recovery, I looked up to see that she was already running towards the front door, eager to see whoever it was that was flying outside.

"You've got to be kidding me" I mumbled, pushing open the door that led outside, trying to keep my eye on Rose. I didn't want to end up lost in Ponyville on my first day there. When I stepped out of the door I was instantly greeted by the crowd of Ponies that were initially fascinated by whatever was flying, and to my horror, their gaze had fallen towards me. I stood still for a moment or two, trying to figure out what to say, but before I had a chance to even open my mouth, someone spoke for me.

"Oh COME ON! Don't tell me you're all actually fascinated by this "human" or whatever it's called. I mean seriously, I bet he can't even fly!" The mystery flyer laughed as she did a quick barrel roll in front of the crowd, yet again capturing their attention and causing them to laugh. I looked up to see who thought that they had the right to talk about me like that, especially considering that I had never done anything to deserve it. I continued to search the skies, doing my best to seek out the voice that had taunted me, until I finally found its origin. Once I finally found the owner of the cocky voice, I gritted my teeth in anger.

I had hated her ever since I had started to watch the show sophomore year, ever since the very first episode I couldn't stand her. At first she didn't seem too bad whenever I saw her, but as she continued to develop episode after episode, I saw a strange pattern. Even though all of her friends supported her, she was always the rudest and overly aggressive of the mane six, and I was appalled by that. I tried to find a way to like her, but almost every time I saw her, I couldn't help but hate her. Only adding to her "oh so sweet" personality was the fact that she had an annoyingly prideful attitude and the sense that if she wasn't the best at everything, then she was nothing at all. And that whole stupid thing with her having to have "the best" pet because she was the "best pony" only helped to solidify my views on her. She continued to loop around and laugh at me, which only made my face redder as I attempted to calm myself before I said something that I would regret.

"I fucking hate you so much Rainbow Dash" I growled to myself as I made contact with the cyan colored pony. Just as I opened my mouth to speak to her, to shut her down in front of all of the ponies, to shame her to the point in which she would never even dare to show her face around Ponyville again, I felt an all too familiar force begin to envelope me.

"Oh come on, not again!" I groaned as everything that lay before me began to fade away, and was replaced by the white light that either meant that I was dying, or teleporting. I shot one last glare in Rainbow Dash's direction before I felt myself being lifted, then vanishing entirely.

**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**

"How long are you going to continue to do this to me?" I mumbled to no one in particular as I came back into reality and looked around to see that I was yet again in the throne room of Canterlot. My eyes continued to search around the room until I looked up to see Princess Celestia standing above me, a stern look covering her usually delighted muzzle. I sat up slowly, confused as to the reasoning behind her grave expression along with her sister who stood next to her, looking just as grim.

"Jakob we need to ask you something. And you need to be completely honest with us" Celestia commanded, making eye contact with me to show how serious she really was. I had no clue what was wrong, but something strange was definitely going down.

"I'll answer your question in just a moment princess, but firstly, let me ask you a question… Why am I here?"

"We will get to that in just a minute, but first I have a question for you, and it is of the utmost importance that you be one hundred percent honest with me" Celestia said, still keeping eye contact with me. "Do you recognize this?" She asked, pointing her hoof to a table that lay near me. At first I looked at Luna and Celestia, not exactly understanding what they wanted me to do, but deciding not to keep them waiting, I stood up slowly and made my way over to the decorative table.

Once I was close enough to see what they were talking about, I noticed that in the very center of the table, lay a very large glass case with something inside of it. I leaned over the table to try and get a glance at what was inside, and whenever I finally saw it, my eyes lit up with excitement and curiosity. I had seen some of these back at home, but none nearly as beautiful as the one that I was beholding.

"Does it look familiar to you?" Luna asked as I continued to stare at the beautiful steel sword, unable to take my eyes off of it.

"N-No…" I mumbled as I continued to look over the frame of the deadly looking piece of art. It looked sharp enough to use as a tool for brain surgery. "Why would it look familiar to me?" I asked, shaking my head at the impassively beautiful tool of destruction.

"Are you absolutely sure that you have never seen this before? Even back on earth?" Celestia asked urgently, clearly growing more and more worried by every minute that went by. I still had absolutely no clue why the hell that she was talking about. I had never seen that sword before.

"I'm sure. Trust me, if I had seen it before, I doubt I would have forgotten about it" I reassured her. "But seriously Princess, why do you think that I would recognize it?" I asked, looking towards the Sun goddess as she glanced over to her sister, almost as though she were asking her a question. Luna responded to her sister's gaze with a solemn nod.

"This is why" Luna sighed, holding out a note towards me, causing me to tilt my head slightly, confused. I took the neatly folded up note and opened it, my eyes immediately falling on the nearly perfect handwriting that lay on the peace of parchment. It was only a name, followed by a sentence. Nothing to extravagant or complex, but those words were enough to make my eyes open wide in disbelief.

"I-W-Where did you find this?" I stammered, still staring at the piece of paper that I held tightly in my hands.

"One of our royal guards found it in the Everfree forest, along with the sword" Luna admitted, clearly as shocked as I was by the whole experience.

"B-But how could… This doesn't make any sense" I said as my eyes continued to scan the note, still unable to believe what it said. But the more I read it over, the more I was sure of what was written on it.

_**Jakob**_

_**As a token of friendship I give you this sword**_

_**Forged deep within the walls of chaos and agony**_

_**In exchange for the hope that you bear it aloft**_

_**Refusing to feel fear in the face of all adversity**_

_**And slay the enemies that lie before your wake**_

_**To relish in their arduous pain and suffering **_

_**And awaken the unfathomable power that lies within.**_

_**-**__**D**_

"What does D stand for?..." I asked myself, not really sure if what I was reading even existed. It just didn't make any sense. "When did this appear in the Everfree Forest?"

"Right whenever you arrived here…" Luna mumbled as she shook her head in despair

"So what exactly does this mean?" I asked nervously in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had fallen between everyone. I wasn't exactly sure what the poem had meant, but whoever wrote it obviously knew me fairly well… I just wished that I could have figured out what "D" stood for…

"Well… As much as I think that this is a bad Idea, I must keep my word as a princess to be honest and fair…" Celestia sighed, clearly not happy with the outcome of the current situation we had found ourselves in. "We must give you the sword. It was addressed to you and you alone…"

"Wait, me? You want me to take the sword?" I asked a bit louder than I intended, my excited voice ringing down the long hall that made up the main corridor.

"Yes I do. But in exchange for the weapon, you must do something for us" Luna said, stepping forward next to her sister to face me.

"What can I do to help?"

"We will have you enlisted into the royal guard. Taking into account that you are the only one with hands, you are most likely the only person that can use something as dangerous as that without possibility of self-harm. You will be a very important asset to the guard, plus the pay is exceptional, especially if you can manage to get to a higher rank… We need you. We can never be too careful… Especially not with the outer lands…." Celestia pontificated, her serious manner returning.

"Wait… Outer Lands?" I had never been told about any sort of land other than Equestria. I had just figured that it was its own planet; I had no clue that there was a whole other part of it that I had never heard of.

"Yes… It is the part of Equestria that is not covered by the sunlight that makes everything grow. It is a terrible place, filled with hate and greed as well as monsters and everything else horrible that your mind could ever possibly muster up… I never want to see you or Ashe venture out past the area that is covered by sunlight, do you understand?" Luna commanded, making sure to get close and make eye contact with me as well.

"Ok… So how do I enlist into the guard?" I asked, eager to be able to provide for myself instead of bumming money off of the government. I figured it would be an easy job, just walk around all day wearing armor and looking pretty. Ponyville was way too perfect of a place to have any crime in the first place, so I really wasn't all that worried.

"We will have you enlisted. Lucky for you the training for new recruits begins in one week, so you'll be able to have plenty of time to practice before the trials." Celestia said, her mood evidently improving a bit as the same motherly smile appeared of her face.

"Umm… The trials?"

"Oh excuse me" She laughed "I keep forgetting that you are new here. The trials are a set of tests put forward after a guard has trained for a few weeks or so to see if he is ready to join the full-fledged Equestrian military. You don't have to complete The Trials to become a guard, but fortunately for you, you will have to."

"Oh come on…" I muttered under my breath. As cool as being in the guard sounded, I wasn't sure if I was ready to fight anything yet.

"Anyway, we will not keep you any longer. We did not mean to interrupt you if you were busy. You may take your sword and go if you wish" Luna apologized, causing me to remember what had happened with Rainbow Dash.

"Oh don't worry Princess, you didn't interrupt anything" I laughed as I walked over to the case that held the sword which now belonged to me. I stuffed the note in my pocket and opened up the top of the case and carefully took the sword out and gripped it tightly in one hand.

Almost as soon as I gripped it, I felt a surge of power surge up my spine and into my neck, almost causing me to drop it. It was unlike anything that I had ever felt before. The buzzing sensation continued to run through me, covering every single part of my body until I literally felt as though I was beaming with power.

"Wow" I mumbled as I took the sword and switched hands with it, eyeing its perfect frame. I had seen near perfectly forged swords before, but this one made everything else that I had ever laid my eyes on look like a child's toy. I glanced into the steel blade, admiring the clear reflection it gave off as I looked into it. I slowly ran my finger up the edge of the blade and all the way up to horrifically sharp end, which looked as though it could cut through pure iron without much effort on the wielders part. I continued to look it over until my eyes came to the bronze looking hinge, which contained a red crystal in the very center that seemed to catch my attention more than anything else. I stared into the blood red jewel, transfixed on the beautiful glow that had seemed to emanate from deep inside of it ever since I picked the weapon up. I pulled the swords away from my face and it once admired more, toying around with it and flipping it over. The grip on the hinge itself was extremely comfortable and felt as though it were made of some kind of rubber. Although the beautiful piece of weaponry had a fair amount of weight to it, I still found it easy to maneuver and control, giving it a deadly combination of speed and power.

"Well, be careful how you use that Jakob. I'm not entirely sure why someone would have given something like that to you in the first place, so be smart. Farewell!" Luna shouted as I felt myself being enveloped in the same kind of force that had consumed earlier, and before I knew it, I was back at the inn.

_**Well that's chapter seven and I hope you all enjoyed! So where do you think the sword came from? And what does D stand for? Well one thing is for sure, Jakob is going to have his work cut out for him in the royal guard.**_

_**Sorry if the little poem was kind of bad, I'm not the best at writing those. Until next time!**_


	8. Job Hunting

_**I'M BACK BABY! I want t say THANK YOU to every single one of you amazing people for even giving this story a glance, and I'll give you one better, I'm giving a quick shout-out to all of you who helped me feel better, whether it be a quick review, or a private message, I'd like to give indefinite thanks to: IslandAlbatross, ShadowVoltstreaker, LaserLens4, Patrick, and the mysterious reader who likes to refer to himself as "Guest". I can't thank any of you enough. Anyways, please enjoy the chapter! **_

**Jakob**

I stood outside of the inn for a moment, trying to calm myself own and recollect all of my thoughts after the unexpected teleportation. I glanced down inside of my cloak to find that the sword that had just been given to me was safely strapped to the belt that I had worn to the concert just two nights before. After looking around to make sure that Nopony had seen me, I slipped silently into the inn. I was pretty sure that news about a human being in Equestria would travel fast, and I didn't want any one of Ponyville's residents to see me for fear that they might figure out where my friend and I were staying.

"D… Who the hell is D?" I mumbled quietly to myself as I made my way up the stairs. Even as I continue to rack my brain to its fullest potential I couldn't for the life of me figure out who sent me the sword. As a matter of fact, I didn't think I even knew anyone whose name started with a D.

"Something about that poem too…'To relish in their arduous pain and suffering'… It doesn't make any sense. Why would I want to hurt anyone?" I asked more to myself than anyone else as I pushed open the door slowly. It was pretty late and if Ashe was asleep, I wouldn't have wanted to wake him. Plus, he looked like he was having one heck of a dream….

**Ashe**

"_Wait… Where am I?" I asked as my eyes frantically darted around the unfamiliar landscape. It took a moment or two for me to get adjusted to the extreme darkness, but once I finally recovered from the change in lighting, I knew exactly where I was. It was the Canterlot garden! A smile instantaneously festered itself across my face as I breathed in the beautiful scent of Honey suckle and cherry blossoms. It was an unbelievable sight. There were plants and trees and fruits everywhere, some seemed familiar, but others were simply indescribable. It was possibly one of the most peaceful looking places that I had ever encountered, which probably didn't mean too much considering the fact that I was from such a large city. But just as I felt a calming warm breeze hit my cool skin, the tranquil silence was broken by an unfamiliar voice. _

"_Soon we will have revenge… Soon… Those stupid fucking ponies will regret what they did to master… He will make them suffer"_

_I cringed at the sinister sounding voice. It was so out of nowhere that I wasn't even sure what to make of it. And who would want to make these adorable little creatures suffer? I mean sure some of them could be annoying at times, but why would anyone ever want to hurt one of them? I looked around, searching for the strange voice, but as I continued to search, I heard another voice appear from out of nowhere, except this time, it sounded even more sinister, causing me to shiver in fear as well as duck behind a nearby tree._

"_**They thought they could keep me trapped in here forever, like a caged animal… They were horribly wrong. And soon enough I will make them see the oblivious error of their ways, just as soon as I can tame him"**_

"_Tame who?" I whispered to myself, but no sooner had I had a chance to speak than the first voice asked for me._

"_Who is it that you wish to tame?"_

"_**The one that just arrived here with his friend of course! Why else do you think I would have sent him such a valuable gift? I have held possession of that sword for ages. You don't think I would do something as foolish as to just give it away to someone who I knew didn't have the strength to wield it do you?"**_

"_Well of course not it's just that-"_

"_**ENOUGH!"**_ _The voice thundered, causing me to bend over and clasp my ears for fear of going deaf. __**"Did you get the blade to Celestia or not?"**_

"_Y-Yes of course I did… I even gave her the note just as you commanded… It's in the humans' possession as we speak…" The first figure stuttered nervously. _

"_**Good… We will continue this conversation elsewhere… I've been trapped in this garden for far too long, and I'd like to retreat back to my home if you don't mind"**__ He snapped, to which the other mysterious voice responded with a small whimper of agreement. _

_For a moment all was quiet and my heart beat returned to its normal pace as I took in a deep breath. I wasn't sure what to make of this situation… I mean surely it was nothing but a dream but nothing seemed to make sense. Who were the two mysterious voices, and why the HELL were they talking about "making them suffer"? The more I thought, the more questions began to arise in my head._

_I slowly but surely peeked around the tree, my heart beat picking back up again as the thought of getting caught by who or whatever was talking festered itself in my mind. But to my surprise and utmost relief, I found that there was no one around… But I still couldn't help but wonder… Who were the owners of those strange voices? And who were they talking about…._

"Jakob!" I half shouted half yawned, almost throwing myself over the edge of the tiny bed frame. Why did everything here have to be so god damn small? Lately I had been having a large amount of strange and unexplainable dreams, but that was one of the ones that REALLY made no sense whatsoever.

I stood up and stretched my arms high up above my head in an all but futile attempt to wake myself up. I looked over to the other bed to see Jakob sitting down on his equally small bed holding something that looked like a sword.

"Morning" He mumbled as he ran his hand along the sharp looking blade, unable to take his eyes off of it.

"Um… Jakob?... What is that?" I asked timidly, stepping away from my friend. I knew for sure that we were cool now, but I still felt like he was pretty mad at me for what I did with Krystal, even if he himself wouldn't admit it.

"It's a sword" He replied bluntly, causing me to roll my eyes.

"No shit. Where did you get it from though?"

"Well… Yesterday I was with Roseluck and we were eating dinner or whatever, then out of nowhere Celestia and Luna just teleported me up to their castle and they showed me this. Apparently someone had found it in the Everfree forest and handed it over to the royal guard. I guess the captain showed the princess's or something and they took it, along with the note that had been left beside it. This is the note" Jakob said, handing me a small piece of paper.

_**Jakob**_

_**As a token of friendship I give you this sword**_

_**Forged deep within the walls of chaos and agony**_

_**In exchange for the hope that you bear it aloft**_

_**Refusing to feel fear in the face of all adversity**_

_**And slay the enemies that lie before your wake**_

_**To relish in their arduous pain and suffering **_

_**And awaken the unfathomable power that lies within.**_

_**-**__**D**_

I shuddered after reading it over. Who on earth would write something like this… Any why would they just hand a sword over to Jakob like that? I mean sure he could get violent sometimes, but Jakob never wanted to hurt anyone! He was a great guy! But this little note managed to make him look like some kind of a bloodthirsty, infamous villain!

Then all of the sudden it hit me. The dream that I had… Those voices were talking about sending someone a "gift" and that the human he sent it to was the only one strong enough to "wield" it. The more I thought about it the more it made sense… The more sinister sounding of the two had said that he had given it to the human that came to this world with his friend. And for all I knew, we could be the only humans in this entire universe! But as much as I wanted to say something to Jakob, I decided it would be better if I just kept my mouth shut. After all, it was probably nothing but a silly dream. I mean sure it was strangely coincidental but I figured it wasn't even worth a second thought.

"That's strange. So Celestia and Luna let you take the sword simply because it was addressed to you? Do they really trust us that much?" I asked, surprised that the princess's would think of it as a good idea.

"Luna searched our minds when we first came here remember? If we had even a single thought of hostility towards this world, do you honestly think she would have just let us live amongst their subjects like this? Nonetheless hiding our true identities? Come on buddy, use your brain a bit" Jakob laughed softly as he stood up and twirled the sword around for a moment, admiring its shape and weight just before putting it back in its sheath attached to the rope-like waistband of the dark cloak.

"So what do you say we go for a walk? I have to go enlist in the royal guard since Celestia said one of us had to, and that's right beside Sugar Cube Corn-"

"WOAH WOAH WOAH, YOU DID WHAT?!" I exclaimed, causing my friend to almost fall over in surprise. "Why would you decide to do that? Did you not think that maybe I'd like to talk about this first?! Maybe I don't want you putting your god damned life at risk for a world we haven't even lived in for more than a week?"

"Ashe" Jakob chuckled in return, only agitating me even more "How long has it been since you've taken a look around this place? We are in EQUESTRIA. Nothing but happiness, smiles and rainbows all around. I mean seriously dude, what could go wrong? For all I know, I'll probably just do nothing but stand around all day and get paid."

"Wait really? So you're just going to become a regular guard? That's it? No questions asked?" I asked, obviously causing him to remember something as his eyes shot wide and he put his head in his hands.

"Oh… Shit" Jakob slowly groaned, a pained and worried expression covering his once tranquil face. "They said they weren't putting me in as a simple stationed guard. They want me to be part of the more elite division that actually involved a good bit of fighting… Not to mention the trials that will come before hand… You've got to be kidding me" He sighed as he lay back on his bed, the stress clearly getting to my friend.

"The more elite division? Wait, do you mean the actually military? But you were right! What is there to fight in this peaceful place? You'll probably just get stationed somewhere and receive a higher pay than a standard guard. That's a good thing!" I said in a feeble attempt to cheer my friend up as I sat down on the bed net to him.

"Not completely… There's something that Celestia didn't tell you about Ashe" Jakob sighed as he stood up and looked out the window. "There is a dark side of this world that the sunlight doesn't touch. They call it the outer lands, and the princess's made it indefinitely clear that we are never supposed to go anywhere near there. To be honest they didn't really go in to detail or even explain why we aren't supposed to go there, they just said it is a place full of chaos, evil, and greed. If you look for enough out onto the horizon you can see some of it" He finished, motioning me over to the window that he was gazing out of.

I slowly stood up and made my way over to where he was standing to sneak a peek out of the window. As I peered out, everything seemed fairly normal. I looked out over Ponyville and all of its inhabitants walking about and noticed nothing strange or menacing off in the distance to the right, and for a moment, I thought that Jakob had just been pulling my leg, but then he pointed off towards the left. I looked in the direction in which he was pointing, and at first I couldn't really see all that much. Most of Equestria general speaking was entirely flat, so someone could look out for miles without having their vision blocked. I gazed out over the entire Everfree forest, glad that we managed to wind up on the fifth floor of the inn so that we could see over it. I looked beyond the forest and all of the sudden I saw what looked to be a dip off into a very dark looking valley right in front of a huge mountain range… It was so dark that I could barely tell that those large, jagged pieces of rock formed mountains! The entire area was quite clearly covered in some sort of an un-natural cloud formation. As I continued to squint out into the evil looking place, I shuddered slightly in sudden realization that the only thing separating this peaceful utopia from the dark, evil outer lands was the Everfree forest… And that itself was only about five or six miles in length! But then again I saw what looked like a very large wall right in front of the valley, so it seemed as though the light side of Equestria was safe from whatever lay on the other side of that wall.

I continued to look over the white wall that seemed to surround practically all of the "good" side of Equestria, and when I squinted it looked as though there were guard towers spaced evenly along the wall, most likely emplaced there to survey the Outer Lands and make sure that nothing attempted to make its way through to the other side. But even with the enormous wall, it still was a bit nerve wracking to know that there was a dark side to this place… Especially considering that my best friend was most likely going to have to deal with its inhabitants… if there were any.

"So… What do you think man?" Jakob sighed sadly as he too gazed out into the Evil looking Outer Lands. I decided that it would probably be better to respond with a reassuring and positive answer than an honest one…

"It looks a tad bit creepy, but I'm sure it's not all that bad!" I lied as I chuckled awkwardly, trying to cheer him up "I mean come on, the worst thing that they could possibly do to you is put you up on that wall over there, and all you'd really be doing is sitting around and making money, so there's no reason to fret! So where is it you have to go to enlist again?" I asked, doing my best to change the subject.

"You'd know if you would have let me finish my sentence earlier without freaking out on me… The enlisting station is right next to Sugar Cube Corner… You know… The place where Pinkie Pie stays. I was thinking while I wait in line to enlist you could maybe talk to her for a little while or something like that. You've always liked her most out of the mane six right?"

Almost as soon as he asked the question, I began to jump up and down like a little girl who just got told she would get to go to Disney World. I absolutely LOVED Pinkie Pie! She was funny, adorable, and best of all, she was always happy! Even at my lowest of lows, all I would have to do was turn on my TV, hear her laugh, and I would immediately feel better! She was almost exactly like me, and maybe that was why I loved her so much.

"YES YES YES YES YES YESSS I'D LOVE TO GO JAKOB!" I squealed excitedly, barely able to hold in my anticipation to finally talk to the Pink pony.

"OK OK, if you'd calm down we could get out of here and start walking" Jakob chuckled in response as he slowly backed away towards the door, looking very surprised by my somewhat random outburst of excitement, but hell, how could I help myself! I WAS GOING TO GET TO SEE PINKIE!

"Um…. A-Ashe?" Jakob stuttered.

"EEEP! YES!?" I asked, still unable to control my excitement

"Your eyes…"

"Wait… What about them?" I asked, suddenly becoming a bit worried

"They're glowing yellow…" Jakob laughed nervously "Luna said your eyes glow a certain color if you're feeling a specific way… Yellow must mean that you're excited!"

"Wait, really?!" I practically shouted, only furthering my excitement as I ran over to look myself over in the mirror, only to find that Jakob was telling the truth! My eyes were glowing a neon yellow! The centers of my pupils were still black just as always, but the part that was usually a casual green was yellow!

"That's pretty cool, but not as cool as my wings! Now let's get going already!"

"Phew… Ok" I laughed, all tired out from my jumping. I took a deep breath, doing my best to calm myself down before Jakob opened up the door and we began making our way down the stairs.

**Jakob**

Once Ashe FINALLY Shutup and we made our way downstairs, we pushed open the doors to the inn and began walking towards Sugar Cube Corner. It was only three or four blocks away, so I figured it probably wouldn't take us too long to get there and back. But then again I had no clue how I was going to separate Ashe from Pinkie, for all I knew, I'd probably have to drag him off by his hair just to get him to leave her alone. Then again they had so much in common that she'd most likely wind up taking a liking to him as well.

"Maybe bringing him along wasn't such a good idea after all" I chuckled to myself, causing my friend to glare at me very quickly. I had completely forgotten he had such outstanding hearing.

"You know you're going to have to get a job too" I pointed out, not wanting to be working my but off every day while Ashe sat at home and did nothing but sleep like he did back on earth. I swear to god waking that kid up was near next to impossible.

"Well duh, I'm not just gonna let you roll around in money while I sit at home masturbating all day. I'm gonna need to figure something out for myself as well, I just have no idea what!" He replied as we continued to pass by the staring ponies. Sure they knew that we weren't dangerous, so most of them weren't scared of us in the slightest, but they were still curious. I mean who could blame them! Before we came, humans were nothing but a myth to the inhabitants of this world. And now that we were living here, we would have to come to expect to capture the attention of A LOT of the ponies living in this part of Equestria.

"Well there are a lot of places you could work at! For one maybe you could talk to the Cakes about working at Sugar Cube Corner as a baker or a waiter or something like that. You could sign up to be in the guard as well. Hey, and if all else fails, you could always just work at a rock farm!" I laughed hysterically, causing even more ponies to stare

"NO!" Ashe yelled in return "That is the one place that I will NEVER work at! Did you see the clip of Trixie doing it? I'd break my back in half!"

"Hey dumbass" I laughed "Did you forget about that little thing you now have called magic?" In response he gave me a dumbfounded look, and then glanced down at the black marks in the centers of his palms to find that I was telling the truth.

"Oh… Yeah… I- I knew that! Pfft! I'd never forget something like that" Ashe scoffed in a pathetic attempt to keep himself from looking like an idiot for the second time that day.

"Well I mean you already forgot about your eyes changing color. Were you even paying attention? I mean at least I haven't forgotten about the wings on my back" I chuckled as my friend crossed his arms, obviously pissed off at himself.

"Well excuse me for getting hit by a god damn truck Jakob. I wasn't exactly awake at the moment"

"Yeah yeah whatever, nothing but excuses from you lately. Hey, looks like we're here!" I pointed towards the gingerbread looking building placed conveniently to the right of the enlisting station. The line looked fairly long so I figured I'd probably just wind up standing there for a while.

As I continued to walk I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. I'd considered going into the military back at home for a while, but I figured that it would never work out anyway. I wouldn't be nearly as skeptical about the high paying job if the Outer Lands didn't exist. I mean god knows what was out there! Even Celestia herself wouldn't go into detail about the forbidden place! Either way, I knew that I was just going to have to be strong and push my fear aside… I had to do this… There was no way I could back down now and just let Ashe take my place. If anything happened to him I'd blame myself, and even though I was still a bit angry at him for what he did to me, I still loved him like a brother. And I'd be damned if I ever let anything bad happen to him.

"Alright well I'm going to go in and try and find Pinkie" Ashe laughed excitedly, snapping me back to reality "Good luck with signing up man, that line looks like it'd be a pain in the ass to stand in. Is there a specific time you want me to come outside and meet you or is it cool if I just meet you back at the inn?"

"Well I wouldn't want to have to pull you away from her or anything… Yeah you can just meet me at our place whenever. Just please don't stay out too late. I really don't feel like having to-"

"Yeah yeah sounds good, catch ya later!" He replied arrogantly, his sudden change of tone throwing me off as he turned his back and walked into Sugar Cube Corner.

"Wait for you all night…" I finished before looking over towards the incredibly long line and letting out a small sigh.

"Oh Jakob… What have you gotten yourself into…"

**Ashe**

I rushed over to the bright pink front door of Sugar Cube Corner, bursting with excitement and anticipation. Finally, after all this time I was going to get to see the pony that gave me enough strength to get through the day! Every single time I would listen to one of her songs, I couldn't help but smile. Everything about her just made me so happy! I could only imagine how happy I'd be to actually get to see her!

Bursting with energy, I barely managed to calm myself down enough to take a deep breath and knock on the door. I stood there for about thirty seconds, unable to wipe the beaming smile off of my face as I waited for somebody… well… some_pony_ to answer the door. I continued to wait as seconds dragged on into minutes. And suddenly, for the first time that day, I became somewhat discouraged. After all the buildup could they really not be home? My smile faded and I let out a long sigh of disappointment after the third minute or so that I had spent waiting came to an end.

"Maybe I should just try again tomorrow…" I sighed, trying to find a reason to feel better. I was sure that I would get another chance to see her but… I still couldn't help but be the slightest bit disappointed after all the excitement. I turned around, figuring I might as well stand in line with Jakob and give him some comfort. God knows how nervous he must've been. But as I went to take the first step down the stairs that led to the entrance of Pinkies house, I noticed something strange.

"Um… they're not home" I chuckled nervously towards the on-looking crowd of what seemed to be twenty or more impatient looking ponies… None of which I recognized. To make everything even stranger than it already seemed, they were all standing in a straight line, as if every one of them wanted to get into the cupcakes house… Was Pinkie Pie really that popular around here?

"G-Guys… They didn't answer the door when I knocked… I don't think they're home" I stammered, desperate to do whatever I could to get all of their eyes off of me. As if things weren't bad enough, as soon as I finished my sentence, a large number of them began to laugh and giggle… Were they actually making fun of me? I mean I knew that I was probably very different from the rest of them so I had expected there to be a couple of jokes but I can't believe that such an accepting place could have inhabitants that treated outsiders so cruelly?

"I should have known… Especially after the way they treated Zecora" I sighed weakly to myself, walking shamefully down the steps, doing my best to not show them how red my face was from embarrassment. I continued to walk with my head down, trying desperately not to make eye contact with any of the ponies that had just laughed at me when I heard what sounded like a door opening. I turned around excitedly, expecting Pinkie Pie or Mrs. Cake to have finally answered the door, only to be met by surprise as I noticed all of the ponies that were in line behind me just simply pushing the door open and making their way inside the tasty looking building.

I decided that it would be a good idea to walk up and protest, try to keep all of those rude ponies from invading Pinkie's house without her permission. But just as I opened my mouth to scorn them, the sign for what I thought to be Pinkie and the Cakes house came into view.

"Wait… Why the hell would someone have a sign for their house?" I asked to no one in particular as I made my way to the left in hopes to get a better look at the strange sign. Once I was finally able to read it I came pretty damn close to slapping myself in the face right then and there.

**SUGAR CUBE CORNER**

** PONYVILLES' OWN PUBLIC BAKERY! **

"Public bakery… It's not a house! It's a god damn bakery! UGH! Ashe why the bloody hell do you have to be such an idiot sometimes?" I groaned to myself, amazed at my level of stupidity. After the past couple of years, I had seemed to have developed a bit of a habit of talking to myself.

I made my way back over to Sugar Cube Corner, figuring that after making myself look like THAT much of an idiot I might as well as work up the nerve to walk in the place. I pushed my way through the lightly colored door and almost immediately I was hit by the smell of a fresh bakery. I smelled everything from recently baked chocolate chip cookies to cheesecake and hard candies and everything in between. I opened my eyes after one or two seconds after indulging myself in the heaven like smell of the up kept building. I stepped forward to marvel at the cakes delectable looking creations they kept in the little glass container that had what looked to be a cash register placed on top of it. They had everything from carrot cake to chocolate cake to pies, cupcakes, éclairs, fruitcakes, lollipops, and everything else I could possibly imagine!

It was strange how in a world that seemed to have no contact whatsoever with the human world that we seemed to like the same desserts and sweets. Then again, just like with the reason that Jakob and I wound up in this strange world filled with multicolored ponies and rainbows… I figured that it would be better off not to trouble myself with the thought. It probably wasn't worth the headache anyway.

"Um… M-May I help you s-sir?" Stuttered a familiar sounding voice, snapping me away from my thoughts about Equestria as well as life in general.

I glanced up and looked behind the counter and smiled a bit once I realized who the owner of the voice was.

"Actually Mrs. Cake I was just wondering if Pinkie Pie was around" I chuckled happily towards the seemingly nervous cyan pony.

"Why y-yes she's upstairs right now actually…" She stammered, clearly doing her best to keep herself from making eye contact with me.

I decided that before I asked to go upstairs it would probably be a decent idea to go ahead and try and smooth things over quickly. I didn't feel like having anyone around this new world look at me as some kind of a monster.

"Alright… May I say something mam?"

She replied with only a nervous nod… A better response than what I had expected.

"I understand that you may be a bit… Well… that you may be a bit timid or nervous when I am around. I'm sure a lot of ponies around here are. I mean to most of you I'm probably nothing more than a freak or some alien that just randomly popped up in your world… And I want you to know that I'm no monster and that I'm actually a very friendly guy. And if you ever need any help around here I'd be very glad to lend you a hand… er… In your case a hoof." I finished with a smile, figuring that would make things at least a little bit better.

"Oh… Well in that case I'll have Pinkie come right on down" Mrs. Cake chuckled, obviously feeling a lot better knowing that I wasn't just some monster here to feast on her brains.

"Oh and Mrs. Cake?" I called out as she was making her way up the stairs, causing her to turn around. "You're mane looks absolutely wonderful"

"Aw, well thank you so much deary" She smiled as her cheeks went slightly red. I figured flattering her would maybe lead to her seeing me as a nicer person in general, so I thought it'd be a good idea to throw that in there just for the hell of it.

I went and sat down in a nearby booth to wait for Mrs. Cake to bring Pinkie Pie downstairs, when out of nowhere, I began to have negative thoughts again. What if Pinkie Pie was scared of me too? What if I did something stupid in front of her and made her think I was weird? What if I said something to upset her? What if she just didn't like me?

"Ugh… Shutup Ashe I'm sure that she'll like you" I groaned to myself as I rested my head against the cool table.

"You're sure who'll like you?!" Shouted an ecstatic sounding voice, causing me to fall out of my chair in surprise as well as let out a very feminine "squee" or surprise.

"You didn't have to go and throw yourself out of the chair over somepony liking you silly! I'm sure she'll think you're totally super duperly spectacular!"

I quickly picked myself up realizing who the voice belonged to and slid back into the chair directly across from hers. Almost immediately I felt myself begin to go red with embarrassment for the second time that day.

"Anyways I know you're new around here so let me introduce myself!" The pink pony giggled "My name's Pinkie Pie, and I just LOOOVE making new friends! What's yours? Wait… Why are your cheeks all red?"

"Oh… Um… I don't know that just tends to happen with humans sometim-"

"OOOOOO is that what you're called!? Humans sound really awesome! I mean they have an awesome name so DUHHH, of course they're awesome! I heard that you were coming into town and I watched you guys say hi to all the ponies and I was all like: OH MY GOSHHH THEY'RE SO COOL I SHOULD TOTALLY THROW THEM A PARTYYYY! And then you left to go back to your inn and I was so excited I couldn't stop jumping with joy!" The pony squealed as she bounced out of her seat and began to jump up and down, causing me to chuckle a bit.

To be honest she spoke so quickly that I couldn't make out much other than "humans" "oh my gosh" and "party", so I just decided it would be better to go with the flow.

"Well, my name's Ashe for starters and I'm very glad to meet you Pinkie Pie!" I laughed, yet again finding myself to hide my excitement.

"OH BOY YOU'RE NAME IS ASHE?! That's such a cool name! We don't have names like that around here, well, except for the inn keeper, his name's Bernie, but Ashe! Wow! Ashe rhymes with flash! Are you like super duper fast and stuff! Because that'd be so cool! I had a friend named flash once but surprisingly he wasn't very fast. You know what else rhymes with Ashe?! DASH! I have a friend named Rainbow Dash and she has a rainbow colored mane and she really really wants to join the wonderbolts! Oh sorry, keep forgetting you're new. Silly meeee! The wonderbolts are this super awesomely spectacular flying team that-"

"Hey um… Don't mean to interrupt you but I'm kind of hungry… Wanna come with me to go get a bite to eat? It is about lunch time and I figured maybe you'd get hungry too-"

"OF COURSE I'll go out to eat with you silly!" Pinkie shouted before practically tackling me out of my chair and onto the floor with intense excitement. I looked up end expected her to be standing there waiting for me to get up, only to feel a tugging sensation on my neck and look down to see the pink pony giving me a firm but gentle hug. Her eyes were closed and she leaned in and began to tenderly nuzzle me under my neck, causing me to almost have a heart attack from her pure adorableness.

"Well, we better get going" I said happily as I stood up, only to find that Pinkie was still hanging onto my neck as a child would it's father. "Pinkie, as much as I'm enjoying this you're gonna have to go ahead and let go of me if you want to get goin-"

"Well why didn't you just say so?!" Pinkie giggled as she suddenly appeared by the front door, taking me completely by surprise.

"Hurry up slowpoke! What're you waiting for?" She asked as I stood there for a moment, desperately trying to figure out how she managed to get to the door so quickly… Then I remembered a post I saw on Facebook back at home about how Pinkie pretty much defies what we humans know as "Physics" and "Logic". I figured those were probably right.

"All right I'm coming" I giggled happily as I walked over to the door. Even through all the feelings of excitement and all the questions that continued popping up in my head, I couldn't help but wonder how Jakob was doing…

**Jakob**

"Are you actually fucking serious right now?" I growled as I looked over the line that looked to be almost 50 yards long. "First, I get in a fight with my "best friend" and almost kill him. Secondly, I have to swallow my pride, and apologize to him, even though HE is the one that betrayed ME. Then, I had to go ahead and get shown off on stage like I was some kind of a god damn alien. Next, I had to stand there and listen to Rainbow Dash make me look like a bitch in front of everyone. After that, I was told that either I or my friend, who betrayed me, were REQUIRED to serve in the military. And now, I had to sit in this GOD DAMN LINE for GOD KNOWS TILL WHEN to go GOD KNOWS WHERE for GOD KNOWS HOW FUCKING LONG.

"I swear I'm going to lose it" I whispered to myself, barely able to contain my anger which only seemed to rise by the second "Ashe is off fucking around with his little friend while I'm expected to not only go off and possibly die in replace of him, but he can't even have the common decency to AT LEAST stand in line next to me while I wait to sign myself up for this fucking gimmick! I mean does he not care about me at all? After all I've done for him he thinks this is how he can treat me? Does that little CUNT really think that he can just fuck with the love of my life and get away with it?! After he wrecked every ounce of trust that I had built up after being his friend for 12 years, he seriously believes that we can just go back to being "buddy buddy"? Heh… Well he's got another thing coming. He'll be lucky if his heart's still beating after I'm done with him… I'm going to rip that little bitch limb from limb… Tear out his eyes and bury him in his own blood… I'm gonna-"The harshness of my words suddenly catching up to me, causing me to stop midsentence and look down towards the ground.

This was my best friend I was talking about… Not some random stranger that had decided to murder my entire family and burn my house to the ground… How could I think of doing such terrible things to him?

"_**Why because he deserves it of course"**_ Chuckled a sinister sounding voice from out of the blue. I quickly snapped back to reality and began to quickly look around, trying to figure out who the voice belonged to. After glancing seemingly all around myself, I gave up and decided that I was most likely just hearing things.

"I'm hearing voices in my head… Now I'm not only violent… I'm crazy" I sighed sadly as I buried my head in my hands and began rubbing my now tightly shut eyes, doing my best to rid myself of the dark thoughts that lay nested deep within my mind.

I knew that I was a violent person… I had figured that out after I finally put my abusive father in his place. Back on earth, I fought people all the time. People older than me, people younger than me, and the age didn't really matter. I had taken and dealt out an insane amount of beatings. All because I had grown up thinking that violence was the answer to almost every problem. Some bully comes up and starts to try and put you down, you put him in his place. Your teacher decides to try and berate you in front of your entire English three class, you do what you need to in order to shut him up. Even if that means getting suspended for three months for assaulting school staff. And if your drunken, lazy, piece of trash, abusive father tries to lay a hand on you… You bury him in the ground.

I had a dark past… And ever since I got out of my fathers' house I had done my best to try and turn a new page. To find different ways to cope with my frustrations and problems other than resorting to violence or rage. And for the most part… My past stayed dormant. The only people that really knew about it were Ashe and my brother. I switched houses, switched schools, switched friends, monitored my drinking, and changed my attitude. But even though I had done so much to try and escape my past self, there were always moments where it seemed to catch up to me… Even if I didn't want it to. Ever since I changed I had felt like there were always two sides to me. There was the side that was happy. That forgave Ashe, even after all he had done. The side that did everything it could just to make Roseluck smile. That was the good side… But then there was the other side…

I shuddered slightly… Deciding that it would be better to just leave the past in the past.

"Well at least the line has moved quite a bit" I smiled to myself, realizing that not everything was as horrible as it seemed.

As the line continued to move, I began to notice something standing behind the enlisting station. It was a pony… Who looked as though he was in the guard. I recognized the armor he was wearing, but something about him seemed somewhat unique. As though I had seen him before. I mean sure all the guards on the show pretty much looked the same... But something about this one was strange. His armor was a different color, and his mane looked a bit longer than the usual guard. Not to mention his helmet was a different shape… Then it hit me.

"Shining armor" I chuckled happily to myself. Now if there was anypony in this town that I felt like I could trust I'd probably choose him. The captain of the royal guard himself… He most likely led the military division as well. On the show, he always seemed to be one of the kindest yet strongest male characters on the show. Plus he was a big brother who always looked out for his little sister… And I couldn't help but admire that.

He looked as though he were smiling as most of the new recruits came up and signed their names and chatted with him a bit. Most likely talking about the small amount of training and what had led up to their decision to join to guard. Then they would just walk away.

After about two more minutes or so I finally made it up to the front of the line, and almost immediately, the smile on the noble captains' face faded, and was replaced by a harsh, cold stare.

"What are **you** doing here human?" He growled, obviously not too happy to see that I was around. I had never seen him so agitated on the show…

"I'm here to sign up for the guard… Sir" I stammered, barely remembering my manners when it came to speaking with royalty. After all marrying Cadence probably made him somewhat of a prince so I figured I'd need to watch the way I spoke.

"You think you can just sign up for my guard? Oh I've read all about your "species". And I don't want you anywhere near MY guard. Now you better get out of my sight before I have to FORCE you to leave the premises" Shining armor spat, the bitterness of his words stinging me slightly.

"With all due respect Sir… The princesses told me to sign up… And not just for the royal guard, for what they said was the more elite force… Sir" I finished, doing my best to be cautious and not anger him further.

"So let me get this straight. You, a human, come into OUR world, and expect us to feed you, give you money and trust, and treat you as one of our own. THEN you have the audacity to come down to this enlisting station and think that you can just sign up for MY elite task force? Do you even know what your duties would be? Assuming you would even make it through the life threatening trials that you have to pass in order to become a part of this commendable group? You have only been here for a couple of days. What in the name of Celestia made you think that a coward such as yourself could ever be part of such a thing? You would die before you even had the chance to be known as a striker… Now get out of my sight"

"Sir… After all that I've been through, I think that you may be surprised with how strong I truly am sir" I said respectively, doing my best not to growl.

"Do you really?" The captain chuckled "Well in that case go ahead and sign up"

"Wait… really sir?" I asked completely taken back by his sudden change of heart. I mean I figured that I may be able to convince him but I had no idea that it would be THAT easy.

"Well sure. Why not? I mean I'm sure that you'll die after the first trial but that's months from now so I guess at the moment you have nothing to worry about. Plus, as most of your kind say, if you don't believe in yourself how can you expect anyone else to? Now go ahead and sign here to enlist for the tryouts to become a striker. And the best of luck to you pathetic human" Shining armor scoffed as he pointed his hoof at one of the two papers that were laid out on the stand.

The paper on the left read "**ROYAL GUARD ENLISTMENT"** and it had what looked to be almost one hundred applicants who put their name, age, and address on the large piece of parchment. I began to feel better due to the insane amount of ponies enlisting…. That was… until I looked over toward the sheet that said "**STRIKER ENLISMENT"**. The piece of paper was completely blank.

"Um… Sir… why is this sheet completely-"

"Blank?" Shining Armor interrupted "Well probably because mostly everypony that has tried out for the Strikers has died trying. Those trials are a hoof-full you know" The captain said with and almost sadistic smile, sending a chill up my spine.

"Oh… Well… guess I'm going to be the first human to make it into the group huh sir?" I chuckled with a cocky smile, causing him to blink with confusion.

"Wait… so you aren't scared?"

"No sir" I replied confidentially, even though my heart was beating faster than it had for a while.

"Well… in that case what are you waiting for? Sign up and we'll see what you're worth" He scoffed as I filled in all of my information

"Pretty cocky for a disgusting human. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and talk to some of my new trainees for the guard. And the sooner you get out of here the better. I already dislike you enough as it is and I don't feel like dealing with you for any longer" The Captain spat as he turned his back on me and began walking over to a group of guards elsewhere.

Once I finally finished signing up, I stood up and took a deep breath, glad that my little chat with Shining Armor was over and done with. As I turned around and began to walk away, I heard an unfamiliar voice call out to me.

"Hey! Human!" shouted a feminine sounding voice from behind me. I turned around, expecting it to be some random mare that decided she wanted to get to know me better or something like that, and was somewhat taken back by what I saw. It was a mare alright… But she was wearing strange looking armor… much like the captain. And she had a medal on her chest with a large "S" on it.

"Hello mam" I replied courteously, figuring that she was also a high rank as well.

"What's your name kid?"

"My name is Jakob mam"

"Well Jakob first off, you don't have to call me mam. My full name is Cirrus Glide but you can just call me Cirrus, seeing as how we may wind up working together and all someday" She laughed happily. I glanced over her quickly to see what she looked like. She had a light blue color with a white mane that looked extremely similar to Applejacks'. I couldn't see most of her because of her thick armor, but I was sure her cutie mark was cool. And she had beautiful emerald colored eyes.

"Alright then… Cirrus… I'm assuming you're part of the "Strikers" as well?" I asked, already fed up with all that I had to deal with that day.

"Yep! I was a guard for five years or so before and spent a lot of time training. And I made it in alright though. And don't think badly of the captain, he's just doing his job. I'm sure he'll start to warm up to you soon enough"

"Yeah I'll believe that when I see it" I chuckled slightly "So what are the trials?" I asked causing her smile to disappear.

"The trials are a number of tests put forward to see if you have what it takes to become a striker. They may seem very harsh, but they'll actually help prepare you for what comes later…"

"Well what are the trials testing?" I asked, eager to find out about what I was up against.

"As much as I'd love to tell you, I don't want to freak you about before you start your training. Every time a new recruit tries to join the strikers, one of the members has to train them and prepare them for the trials. Almost like their guardian angel. And I'm here to make sure that you are as ready as you'll ever be to take on those trials alright Jakob? Now you won't have the trials for a while, and I know that you're new here, so just send me a letter whenever you're ready to start your training. Just address it to Celestia and tell her to give it to Cirrus" She smiled

"Anyways, it's getting late and I'm pretty sure that the captain is ready for us to load up and head back up to Canterlot. So stay safe and try not to get in to too much trouble alright kid?" Cirrus chuckled as she bumped me on the shoulder with her right hoof before trotting off in the direction of Shining Armor.

As much as I wanted to call her back and ask her question after question, I was more tempted to just go home and go to sleep. It was only a little past Six o'clock or so, but I felt like I was about to pass out just standing there. Especially considering the fact that I hadn't gone to sleep the night before.

Once I got back to my room, I took the sheath containing my sword off of my belt and slid it under my bed. I had so many questions left to ask. What were the trials testing? Why was I here? What was going to happen to me? Why was I hearing that voice inside my head?

"And where the hell is Ashe?" I grumbled as I slid under my blanket and fell into the first deep, blissful sleep that I had gotten the chance to have in days.

_**Well, that's chapter 8 you guys! Hopefully you enjoyed it! And always, if you haven't followed the story and you feel like it's worth it PLEASE follow or favorite so you'll know every time I add a new chapter! And please leave a review, good or bad! It helps me more than you to grow as an author! All this talk of sleep has made me tired, and it's 5:08 in the morning here so I guess it's time for me to say goodnight you guys! Writing wouldn't be nearly as fun without you reading! :D**_

_**-Jake**_

_**PS**__**: I'm starting somewhat of an RP forum where you can ask Ashe or Jakob any question your heart desires, so go check it out and ask some questions!**_


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